Red Alert

Red Alert

Peter George wrote Red Alert (U.K. title, Two Hours to Doom) during the escalation of Cold War paranoia in the late fifties. His own experiences in the RAF clearly influenced the writing of this novel, as Red Alert often becomes bogged down in technical descriptions and procedural maneuvers. Although his primary concern was with accidental nuclear war, the novel is implicitly nationalistic and glorifies military rationality, obscuring the antiwar sentiment in the novel. The ambiguity of George’s message evidently confused his American publishers, causing them to advertise the novel as a war-action adventure, hoping to cash in on the “war buff” audience.

Although the film version hardly resembles George’s original work, he not only received coauthor credit for the screenplay, but is also credited as the sole author of the novelization of the film, also titled Dr. Strangelove, published in paperback by Bantam Books in 1964. The incongruity of the two plots, the use of humor, the radical differences in literary style, and the ultimate differences in overall theme, has led Richard Powers, in the introduction to the 1979 Gregg Press hardcover edition of the novelization, to suspect that George had very little to do with either the screenplay or the novelization. The syrupy optimism that dominates Red Alert and Commander 1, George’s 1965 sequel to Dr. Strangelove, directly opposes the biting misanthropy that drives the novelization and the film. Red Alert seems hopelessly blind to the absurdity of the “big stick” rationality it places so much faith in, making it hard to believe that George could ever stop worrying and truly love the bomb. Warning the reader that the action takes place “the day after tomorrow,” the novel describes a race against the clock to save the world from nuclear destruction. With only months to live Senora Air Force Base commander, General Quinten, assessing the likelihood of a Russian nuclear attack, decides peace on Earth depends on an American first strike. By implementing a retaliatory safeguard (Plan R), he sends an attack wing to bomb primary targets inside Russia, believing that once the Pentagon realizes the futility of calling the planes back (since only Quinten knows the return code), they will commit to a full-scale attack. Seeing no other alternative the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon advise the president to do just that. The president rejects this approach, revealing that political instability within Russia has led to a policy where if attacked and unable to retaliate, the Russian premier politically would be forced to detonate stockpiles of nuclear bombs hidden in the Ural Mountains, effectively rendering the world uninhabitable within six months. After alerting the Russian premier to the situation, the president decides to send troops into Senora and capture Quinten.

Having foreseen this course of action Quinten effectively seals his base from attack. After a bloody battle, troops manage to penetrate the Senora base, but not before Quinten, who believes that he can answer for his action to a higher power, kills himself, ensuring the secrecy of the return code. All hope is not lost as Major Howard, having spent the last two hours with Quinten, is able to deduce the return code. The hope provided by Major Howard is only temporary, after the successful recall of the attack wing reveals that one plane is unaccounted for. The lone B-52 bomber, the Alabama Angel, although severely damaged, manages to elude Russian defenses and continue on course toward its target, unable to receive the return code. The president meanwhile concedes to the Russian premier that if the plane bombs its target he will sacrifice a comparable American city in order to preserve world peace. The Alabama Angel succeeds in unloading its warhead before it crashes, but the bomb, disabled in a dogfight with Russian fighter planes, fails to do any damage. After tense negotiations the Russian premier backs down from his threat to proceed with an attack on Atlantic City and for the moment the world is safe once again.