Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter 2, "The War Room, Omaha," takes places in a room about the size of a small theater, within a building of the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Nebraska. The room's main feature is the Big Board, a plastic screen covering one wall, which at the moment glows with an annotated map of the world. Among the six men in the room are Congressman Raskob, visiting from New York, Air Force Lieutenant General Bogan, his assistant Colonel Cascio, and Gordon Knapp, the president of Universal Electronics, whose company produced much of the technological equipment used by the War Room staff. Knapp, a renowned inventor and scientist, is on his first visit to the War Room, and General Bogan can see that he is excited. Raskob, in conversation with Colonel Cascio, becomes interested when he learns the young officer is from...