[citation needed] Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler's later best-seller, Fail-Safe, so closely resembled Red Alert in its premise that George sued on the charge of copyright infringement, resulting in an out-of-court settlement.

The U.S. government reestablishes the SAC airbase chain of command, but the general who launched the attack, the only man knowing the recall code, kills himself before capture and interrogation.

A novelisation of the actual film, rather than a reprint of the original novel, was published by George, based on an early draft in which aliens try to understand what happened after arriving at a wrecked Earth.

Indeed, the novel Fail-Safe (on which the film is based) is so similar to Red Alert that Kubrick and Peter George sued on charges of copyright infringement.

[3] What worried Kubrick most was that Fail Safe boasted acclaimed director Sidney Lumet and first-rate dramatic actors Henry Fonda as the American President and Walter Matthau as the advisor to the Pentagon, Professor Groeteschele.

[4] Kubrick insisted that the studio release his movie first,[5] and Fail Safe opened eight months behind Dr. Strangelove, to critical acclaim but mediocre ticket sales.