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pa28

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

Fri May 17, 2013, 09:11 PM

May 2013

The Soviets had become convinced we would attack and a series of unrelated events during the same time nearly caused a nuclear war.

TWA flight 007 was shot down and the Soviet early warning system detected a US first strike which turned out to be reflections from clouds at an unusually high altitude. A Soviet officer decided not to report it because their satellites only indicated a few launches instead of a massive first strike and therefore he believed the alarm was false.

He might have prevented an apocalypse and wound up being sacked for his trouble.

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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