 The 1964 film "Fail-Safe" was adapted from a best-selling novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler.In it, nuclear disaster is caused by a technological breakdown that mistakenly launches American bombers to attack the Soviet Union.In order to prove that this was a mistake and to placate the Soviets, thereby saving the world from nuclear war, the US President orders the destruction of New York after a US bomber succeeds in destroying Moscow.