Set at the height of the Cold War, The Unsung Patriots is the story of how WW III may have been narrowly averted during the summer of 1961. It is not a hyper-action fantasy, à la James Bond. In fact, neither the military nor any publicly known government agency was involved. Additionally, the book is as much a love story—a tale of human emotions, character, and vulnerabilities—as it is a foray into the murky world of international intrigue. The main protagonists are bright graduate students who stumble upon something, and are inexorably drawn deeper into a world of deception. In that labyrinth it is sometimes necessary to deceive those whom one cares deeply about—a practice that can exact the steepest price.

In 1961, both America and Russian possessed hydrogen bombs and the aircraft that could deliver them—and both were nearly paranoid with fear of being struck preemptively. Compounding the hazard, hawks in both countries were absolutely certain that their side was doomed if they didn't seize control and strike preemptively. America was at risk from both them and us.

Our fears were greatly reduced in 1961 when the government announced, with great fanfare, the deployment of our first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Atlas E. We could finally sleep in peace as there was—and still is—no stopping a warhead reentering from space. The Russians wouldn’t dare attempt anything now that we possessed an invincible weapon. Unfortunately, a devil sometimes appears—and often—it is not the one anticipated.

On June 5, 1961, the Air Force quietly launched operation Chrome Dome and for more than seven years thereafter, a fleet of B-52 bombers, each armed with four hydrogen bombs, continuously patrolled Russia’s Arctic and Turkish borders. There was no element of surprise; the Russians tracked these flights. The planes flew from the United States, and thus had to be aerial-refueled outbound and returning. The expense was enormous, and those squadrons were needed in our bombardment of North Vietnam.

These flights were terminated after a B-52 carrying nuclear weapons crashed at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, which is Danish territory.

On April 30, 1960, Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane, which flew at about double the B-52’s altitude, had been downed over Russia. Considering that each B-52 was assigned three targets well away from the borders, had our planes entered, few if any would have returned. This mission wasn’t flown during either the Berlin Blockade or the Korean War so, now that we had ICBMs, why the sudden need for a suicide mission? The author knows; he was a missile engineer in charge of an Advance Design group at the time. But to learn the answer to that question, you must read the book.

The epilogue deals with our current situations worldwide. Presently America faces adversaries driven by religious fanaticism who wish to use nuclear weapons against us. The bad news is that there is a way by which they can do so and get away with it. The good news is that we can topple those regimes, and others who are undermining democracy, without firing a single shot.