Tom Clancy's book, The Sum of All Fears, was released as a movie in 2002.
I believe that this book and movie are critical to understanding today's threats of weapons of mass destruction. The overall plot shows the most likely way a weapon of such a caliber would be used
against the United States.
A terrorist gets a hold of a thirty-year-old nuclear weapon, and hires scientists from Russia to get it back into working order.
He plans to use it to start a nuclear war between Russia and the
United States. The bomb is then transported to the United States, and
smuggled into Baltimore, during the Superbowl. The nuclear blast destroys most of the city, killing a million or more people.
The United States blames Russia for the attack, and decides to strike back with a nuclear attack of their
own. The Russians prepare to launch a counter attack to the attack from the United States.
Perhaps the most interesting (and fictional) part of the plot is that mutual assured destruction is avoided through
diplomatic relations, not through the use of weapons. Only once the US President and the Russian leader sit down and talk it out,
are they able to avoid the use of the weapons of mass destruction.
To me, the plot of the book/movie are extremely critical to understanding today's crisis with weapons of mass destruction,
because they show the actual way that America is susceptible to an attack. No
one is going to launch an actual warhead toward the US,
when they can more easily smuggle it into the country, and detonate it, leaving no trace of who to blame. Most important, however, is the end of the plot, which shows that both countries were immediately ready
to launch nuclear weapons at one another and destroy the other country. However,
once they sat down together and discussed their positions, they found that they had almost launched a nuclear war over a misunderstanding. This ending demonstrates the fact that only through diplomatic relations and understanding
each other's perspectives can countries truly come to an understanding.
