“An accident of careless handling at a dumping point had touched off a great atomic explosion, somewhere in central Europe. That country had thought itself attacked during the disarmament hiatus, and had struck at China, which had bombarded Russia, which thought it was being attacked by America. The confusion was straightened out in less than two hours, but by then two-thirds of the world had been killed.”

—  Lester del Rey

Source: The Eleventh Commandment (1962), Chapter 2 (p. 14)

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Lester del Rey10
Novelist, short story writer, editor 1915–1993

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