Fail-Safe

Burdick, Eugene, and Harvey Wheeler. Fail-Safe. New York CityÚ McGraw-Hill 1962. Serialized in three parts in The Saturday Evening Post, starting July 26, 1962. Frequently reprinted, for which see Internet Speculative Fiction Database at link.[1]

For plot summary and a brief discussion of the legal relations among Fail-Safe, Red Alert and DR. STRANGELOVE, see the Wikipedia article "Fail-Safe (novel)" at link.[2]

Basically "mundane" and (unfortunately!) petty-much realistic fiction, bordering on SF on future-war of the thermonuclear variety.

Discussed in Jenni G. Halpin, review of "Under the Shadow: The Atomic Bomb and Cold War Narratives," SFRA Review #306 (Fall 2013): pp. 15-16.[3] Halpin tells us that,

Seed briefly but thoughtfully considers the authors’ evocative description of the “man-machines” of which the War Room of the novel is comprised (170). Continuing the interest expressed in chapters seven and eight in the reduction and remastering of people into integrated machinic parts of the war machine, Seed offers several allusions to the integration of human beings into a largely mechanized or computerized system for waging war but never fully develops his point. (p. 16)

RDE, finishing, 31Jul21