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44. Except for the inaccurate premise that NORAD has anything to do with launching nukes. NORAD

Fri May 17, 2013, 08:38 PM

May 2013

assesses aerospace threats (planes & missiles) but has no weapons role, other than interceptors. US Strategic Command (Strategic Air Command in 1983) has command over nukes. So NORAD would evaluate/assess threats which would be reported to the National Command Authority (President & Secretary of Defense). If the President ordered retaliation, that order would go through the Secretary of Defense (passed by an Emergency Action Message by the Joint Staff (OJCS in 1983) to Commander SAC in Omaha.

This arrangement of warning by NORAD and SAC retaliating, by design or by practice, prevented shortcuts and kept the President in command.

The only thing SAC would do based on CINCNORAD say-so would be to get planes airborne for survivability. There were a couple of well-publicized incidents when exercise information spilled over to the live side and SAC burned up a lot of gas getting the planes in the air.

I was assigned in Cheyenne Mountain July 1986 through May 1990.

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New Documents Reveal How a 1980s Nuclear War Scare Became a Full-Blown Crisis [View all] bananas May 2013 OP

This look like a Reagan psy operation.nt. Sand Wind May 2013 #1

Reagans advisors didn't realize how seriously the Soviets were taking it. nt bananas May 2013 #3

Yeah, he about shit himself when we figured it out. AtheistCrusader May 2013 #12

More archival material comes out every couple of years Posteritatis May 2013 #38

Decades later, our congressmen and generals still think it's awesome Ash_F May 2013 #2

Yeah, but luckily, the risk of full-blown global nuclear war is minute today, compared to 1983-84. AverageJoe90 May 2013 #13

Dont be so sure: There was another incident in 1995 that could easily happen today as well. stevenleser May 2013 #18

Yes, I've heard of that, Steve. It doesn't really change the facts at all, though. AverageJoe90 May 2013 #19

It might be a fluke, but this only has to go the wrong way 1 time. That's whats so scary about it. stevenleser May 2013 #21

That much is very true, I think. n/t AverageJoe90 May 2013 #37

There's a good McNamara quote about that: Posteritatis May 2013 #39

Joe, there's been enough of these flukes to do decent statistical analysis. bananas May 2013 #23

Israel-Iran is the only one that could escalate to a world war, depending on yurbud May 2013 #33

And I doubt even that would escalate that far..... AverageJoe90 May 2013 #36

There's a factor of escalating regional war in MENA and the Gulf that increases the risks leveymg May 2013 #51

Yikes! Remember Fail Safe? gateley May 2013 #4

Watched it on the Military Channel last week, premium May 2013 #5

As a middle-schooler in the mid-80s, I remember being terrified that Raygun and Andropov...... marmar May 2013 #6

I was especially scared of Andropov. Pterodactyl May 2013 #40

Wonder how the world would look today... Ter May 2013 #7

I have read that the southern defacto7 May 2013 #8

Watch the original movie "On the Beach" unc70 May 2013 #17

All life on earth would likely be snuffed out by even a limited nuclear exchange Peace Patriot May 2013 #24

Impossibe Ter May 2013 #31

Reagan made his "bombing Russia" joke in 1984. alfredo May 2013 #9

He actually called it "the Evil Empire" Art_from_Ark May 2013 #11

alfredo Diclotican May 2013 #14

We had known the USSR was going to collapse for decades. I don't alfredo May 2013 #20

alfredo Diclotican May 2013 #25

Our intelligence agencies needed a threat to keep the funding flowing in. To react is an admission alfredo May 2013 #27

alfredo Diclotican May 2013 #29

Iran hated the Taliban and al Qaeda, in part because they were Sunni. Iran even helped alfredo May 2013 #32

alfredo Diclotican May 2013 #34

Our neo conservative movement was created by an old Trotskyite. They weren't anti alfredo May 2013 #35

alfredo Diclotican May 2013 #42

I think the neocons are aware of Irving Kristol's past. He was quite open about his alfredo May 2013 #43

alfredo Diclotican May 2013 #48

Old Bush &the Saudis conspired to overproduce oil and drive down the price of the Soviets' ... Kolesar May 2013 #22

Kolesar Diclotican May 2013 #26

A study revealed the 90% of the Air Force missile fleet would probably not work Kolesar May 2013 #50

A former launch officer told me the same thing in the early '80s. But, the remainder that would leveymg May 2013 #52

Pakistan just had an election Kolesar May 2013 #54

Kolesar Diclotican May 2013 #55

War Games - the movie - also came out that year..... suston96 May 2013 #10

That was an awesome movie! Pterodactyl May 2013 #41

Except for the inaccurate premise that NORAD has anything to do with launching nukes. NORAD 24601 May 2013 #44

My dad was stationed at SAC 75-80. That's when we had the looking glass planes there. i okaawhatever May 2013 #47

This is a good example of words having power. Too much bellicose rhetoric is a bad deal. Selatius May 2013 #15

Scary -- and almost certainly not the only incident of its type. MrModerate May 2013 #16

The really scary part: formercia May 2013 #28

formercia Diclotican May 2013 #30

Diclotican: Thank you for your insights in this thread. LongTomH May 2013 #46

LongTomH Diclotican May 2013 #49

Yeah, it's scary stuff detailed in the BBC's "Brink of Apocalypse". pa28 May 2013 #45

Thanks for that. Here's "Threads" a truly terrifying British version of "The Day After." leveymg May 2013 #53

leveymg Diclotican May 2013 #56