For those who can remember: The fear of nuclear war in Reagan's first term

[Mike 03]

6. I wish I could recall more. There was a lot of important discussion going on

just in general, not particularly just about Reagan, and I remember two large publishing events: The release of "The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War" and also Strobe Talbot's book "Deadly Gambits" (those were two of the first nonfiction hardcovers I ever owned). So in high school and then college I had classmates talk about Reagan causing a nuclear war, but these were not adult, serious discussions and I think we were repeating things adults were saying or were influenced by the thinking of other people because we went on with our educations and didn't spend that much time thinking about it as a reality. Maybe if we'd had been older it would have been another story. Maybe we came close and didn't know it.

My father was in the Naval Reserve or Army Reserve (?) during the Cuban Missile Crisis and was moved to "On Call" or "On Duty" status (I wish to God I had asked him more about this when he was alive--he did actually get transported somewhere, so it was probably more than just being "On Call" ) and he always said that he was scared shitless. That was according to him one of the scariest times of his life. Recalling that week he said, "I didn't know if I would ever see your mother again." The two historical things he never forgot were being called up during the Cuban Missile Crisis and being a reporter during the assassination of JFK.