title: Launch Pad UK: Britain and the Cuban Missile Crisis
author: Jim Wilson
description: Jim Wilson worked as a journalist in Norfolk during the crisis, at which time the Thor missiles were based nearby.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Alas, Babylon
  
  
  
  
  
  by Pat Frank
  
  
  
  
  
  _Copyright © 1959 by Pat Frank_
  
  
  ## F O R E W O R D
  
  
  
  
  
  I have an acquaintance, a retired manufacturer, a practical man, who has
  recently become worried about international tensions, intercontinental
  missiles, H-bombs, and such.
  
  
  
  
  
  One day, knowing that I had done some writing on military subjects, he asked:
  "What do you think would happen if the Russkies hit us when we weren't looking
  - you know, like Pearl Harbor?"
  
  
  
  
  
  The subject was on my mind. I had recently returned from a magazine assignment
  at Offutt Field, Headquarters of the Strategic Air Command, several SAC
  operational bases; and the Missile Test Center on Cape Canaveral. More to the
  point, I had been discussing just such a possibility with several astute
  British staff officers. The British have lived under the shadow of nuclear-
  armed rockets longer than we. Also, they have a vivid memory of cities
  devastated from the skies, as have the Germans and Japanese.
  
  
  
  
  
  A man w