Short sci-fi story on the internet. Worth reading, I guess. I enjoyed it.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
Internet story - A Colder War
Contains this bit:
There are other stories on that site, but I have only read this one, so far.
He hopes that if the balloon ever does go up, if the sirens wail, he and Andrea and Jason will be left behind to face the nuclear fire. It'll be a merciful death compared with what he suspect lurks out there, in the unexplored vastness beyond the gates. The vastness that made Nixon cancel the manned space program, leaving just the standing joke of a white-elephant shuttle, when he realised just how hideously dangerous the space race might become. The darkness that broke Jimmy Carter's faith and turned Lyndon B. Johnson into an alcoholic.
There are other stories on that site, but I have only read this one, so far.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."