Not On My Watch

Not On My Watch tells the story of a small group of the US military intelligence operatives who were the tip of the spear to stop the Soviet Union from being the first to build and deploy an anti-missile defense system. Shrouded in secrecy the Det 3 Operations Group and Team Peregrine, based in Wiesbaden, Germany, operated under cover with the mission to penetrate the Soviet advanced research programs to develop a strategic anti-missile defense system.

Intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads deployed in the US and USSR could execute a strategic attack with a 'push of a button'. Missiles launched at targets thousands of miles distant delivered nuclear warheads on enemy targets 30 minutes later.. The US and the USSR both faced a nuclear apocalypse as each superpower had the capability to annihilate the other as a country and do so in a few minutes. This horrifying specter of destruction was codified by terms: the term Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD).

The US and USSR each were restrained from launching a first attack by the ability of the enemy to launch a counterstrike. A tenuous fault-line in MAD was that the USSR and the USA both lacked the crucial capability to defend against missiles during a strategic nuclear strike.

The first nation to develop an effective defense system against intercontinental nuclear-tipped missiles would radically alter the MAD balance. The nation with a strategic missile defense could hold the other superpower hostage and dominate the world.

Both Superpowers looked to a 'secret intelligence war' to find and exploit cracks in each other's strategic armor. The paramount threat was, which Superpower would be the first to deploy an effective strategic anti-missile system.

The highly classified intelligence war to gain a strategic nuclear advantage is virtually unknown to the American public. Even today, much of that intelligence war remains classified. With the passage of time, some of that opaque curtain can be pulled back to reveal one of the reasons the US won the Cold War. Not On My Watch gives a peek behind the curtain.