Tonight, The Common Room is on the road in Omaha, Nebraska.
At first glance, Omaha seems an unlikely place to begin a story about the end of the world.
But just a few miles from downtown, at Offutt Air Force Base, stood one of the most consequential command centers on Earth.
For decades, Strategic Air Command maintained America’s nuclear bombers, missiles and command systems in a state of extraordinary readiness. If the Cold War had ever turned hot, decisions made or transmitted through Nebraska could have helped determine the fate of civilization.
And Omaha’s connection to the atomic age began even earlier.
The Enola Gay and Bockscar—the B-29s associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—were built at the massive Martin bomber plant outside Omaha.
Then came Curtis LeMay and SAC.
Bombers stood alert. Nuclear missiles appeared among Nebraska farms and small towns. Deep beneath Offutt, commanders prepared for a war everyone desperately hoped would never happen.
And beginning in 1961, there was Looking Glass.
Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, an airborne command post remained ready to take control if the headquarters below were destroyed.
Christmas morning.
Sunday afternoon.
Three o’clock in the morning.
While families ate dinner, children went to school, farmers worked their fields and Omaha went about the ordinary business of being an American city...
somebody was always watching for the end of the world.
Tonight, in The Common Room, we tell the remarkable story of how Nebraska became a nerve center of the nuclear age—and wrestle with the paradox at the heart of Strategic Air Command:
Did these terrible weapons bring the world closer to destruction—or did the certainty of destruction prevent World War III?
We’ll also connect the story with Philip K. Dick’s remarkable 1956 X Minus One Drama The Defenders, and a question that sounds even more urgent today:
What happens when we entrust machines with decisions humans can barely comprehend?
Recorded remotely from Omaha, Nebraska.
Come into the Common Room.
The conversation is just getting started.
Stories • Ideas • Wonder
The Open Door is always on.
Support Chesterton Radio
Chesterton Radio is an independent, listener-supported project preserving great stories, rediscovering forgotten voices, and creating new conversations about history, literature, faith, technology and the human condition.
If these programs are worth having, please help us keep the Little Station on the air through a paid Substack subscription, Patreon, or Buy Me a Coffee.
Every listener—and every bit of support—helps keep the door open.
Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at chestertonradio.substack.com/subscribe
