The Day We Lost the H-Bomb: Cold War, Hot Nukes, and the Worst Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History

“Special Report: Lost and Found, One H-Bomb,” CBS News, March 22, 1966.

56 “I knew it was a bomb”: “Special Report: Lost and Found, One H-Bomb.” 56 According to some accounts: “An H-Bomb Is Missing and the Hunt Goes On,” p. 57.

56 The bomb lay in its crater: The condition of bomb number three is from SAC Historical Study

#109, pp. 34–35; Cable, DASA to RUECW/CNO, January 21, 1966, #51711; and a photograph of the bomb obtained from NNSA through FOIA.

56 A situation report was sent: Memo, ATSD (AE) to Secretary of Defense et al. “Situation Report, B-52/KC-135 Accident, 17 January 1966,” January 18, 1966.

CHAPTER 4: THE AMBASSADOR

58 On the morning of the accident: Duke's actions on the morning of the accident come from author's interview with Joseph Smith, January 23, 2007, and Szulc, The Bombs of Palomares, pp. 60–63. See also Angier Biddle Duke, “Address to American Management Association,” January 17, 1966, and Angier Biddle Duke, “Remarks of Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke on ‘CBS Special Report,’” March 16, 1966 (both in Angier Biddle Duke Papers, Box 18, Duke).

59 If America had to choose: The background on Duke comes from author's interviews with Robin Duke, June 7, 2007; George Landau, January 22, 2007; and Joseph Smith, January 23, 2007. Print sources include Current Biography 23, no. 2 (February 1962), p. 7; Marguerite Higgins, “He Takes the Starch Out of Protocol,” The Saturday Evening Post

, September 29, 1962, pp. 24–25; E. J. Kahn, “Good Manners and Common Sense,” The New Yorker, August 15, 1964, pp. 34 ff; “New Diplomatic Hand,” Newsweek, January 11, 1965, pp. 27–28. Also see Angier Biddle Duke, Living History interview, conducted by James David Barber, John TePaske, and Taylor Cole, October 24, 1990 (Duke Living History Program, Box 1, Duke). A Duke family genealogy can be found at http://library.duke.edu/uarchives/history/duke_familyndx.html.

62 “tobacco-rich playboy”: “New Diplomatic Hand,” Newsweek, January 11, 1965, p. 27.

62 “He has dedicated more sewers”: Quoted in Current Biography 23, no. 2 (February 1962), p. 8.

62 “I'm lost”: E. J. Kahn, “Good Manners and Common Sense,” The New Yorker, August 15, 1964, p. 35.

63 “When I got there”: Angier Biddle Duke, Living History interview, October 24, 1990, part II, p. 7.

63 There was only one reason: The background on the importance of the Spanish bases comes from author's interviews with George Landau, January 22, 2007, and Joseph Smith, January 23, 2007. Cable #1552 from the Embassy in Madrid, February 14, 1964 (LBJ), notes, “GOS attributes great importance to military relationship with US and would be most reluctant to liquidate present arrangements. However … It is psychologically very important to Spain that they stand up against us on some issue.”

63 The Air Force operated three bases: Information on the U.S. military presence in Spain comes from Harry R. Fletcher, Air Force Bases, vol. 2: Air Bases outside the United States of America

(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Air Force, Center for Air Force History, 1993), pp. 187 ff; and Arthur P. Whitaker, Spain and the Defense of the West: Ally and Liability (New York: Harper &Brothers, 1961), pp. 56–64.

63 Zaragosa in northeastern Spain: Zaragosa was reduced to “modified caretaker status” on January 1, 1966, and reassigned to USAFE on April 15, 1966. It returned to active status on February 19, 1970, when Wheelus Air Base in Libya closed. Fletcher, Air Force Bases, p. 201.

64 Generalissimo Francisco Franco: The description of Franco comes from Michael Streeter, Franco (London: Haus Publishing, 2005), and Jean Grugel and Tim Rees, Franco's Spain (London: Arnold Publishers, 1997). For further reading on the Spanish Civil War, see Hugh Thomas's classic text The Spanish Civil War (New York: Harper &Row, 1961).

64 “the most uncharismatic dictator”: Angier Biddle Duke, Living History interview, October 24, 1990, part II, p. 10.