H. Beam Piper 16 min read

A courteous diplomatic letter announces the successful test of a nuclear missile named 'Marxist Victory', noting helpfully that its range exceeds the distance to the recipient's own capital.

H. Beam Piper's 1951 story is a sharp, funny military and social-SF satire told entirely through escalating diplomatic correspondence. Clever, pointed golden-age SF. Read it for a delicious Cold War comedy where rival powers menace each other with impeccable politeness.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

16 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).