A newly published book says that a U.S. hydrogen bomb nearly detonated on the nation’s east coast, with a single switch averting a blast which would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that flattened Hiroshima.
Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina in January 1961 after a B52 bomber broke up in flight.
The Guardian newspaper said on Saturday that a recently declassified document, reported in a new book by Eric Schlosser, shows how close the U.S. came to a major catastrophe.
The document says just “one simple, low-voltage switch” which could easily have been shorted prevented “bad news n spades.”
The Guardian says Mr. Schlosser discovered the document through the Freedom of Information Act.
