A review by gengelcox
The Long Watch by Robert A. Heinlein

4.0

Heinlein was very concerned about the potential of an atomic war. Given his understanding of that, he wrote a number of stories that tried to convey the absolute pointlessness of pre-emptive strikes and other crazy ideas that ran through the political mindsets of the 1950s. And, in the end, he believed he failed—that nothing he had written had quite captured the minds or opinions of those in charge of the launch commands. I’m not sure what he attributed our ability not to blow ourselves up, as a human race, but I doubt he would have put it under our intelligence. This is a story of a single man who decided to avert the use of those weapons. It’s dated now, but there’s still a power to it, akin to [a:Kim Stanley Robinson|1858|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1376955089p2/1858.jpg]’s “The Lucky Strike,” in that the decision has to be made by an individual who realizes that if he doesn’t do this alone, something much worse will occur, even suspecting that making that decision spells doom for the individual even if it saves many more people. That kind of heroism is hard to come by, which may be why it’s often in stories.