Eugene Burdick (1918–1965)

Several years before we stepped into Vietnam with the idea of saving democracy, this book foreshadowed our venal weaknesses and hubris. A classic.

The combination of pretty common mistakes in procedure, launches an atomic attack on Moscow by American Forces. There's well written ratcheting up of suspence, and some character developemet. It was a popular Doomsday book, in its time.

This I read when trying to understand what Viet Nam in the 1960s would be like.

The concept of the ninth wave, that in a sequence of incoming waves every ninth one would be stronger than the preceding eight, is what I recall from this novel. Good story, questionable idea, but fascinating at the time I read about it. I've no memory of characters, plot, or any other things about the book.