39 years ago today, one man saved us from world-ending nuclear war

Guno צְבִי

Guno צְבִי

We fight, We win
On September 26, 1983, the planet came terrifyingly close to a nuclear holocaust.

The Soviet Union’s missile attack early warning system displayed, in large red letters, the word “LAUNCH”; a computer screen stated to the officer on duty, Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, that it could say with “high reliability” that an American intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) had been launched and was headed toward the Soviet Union. First, it was just one missile, but then another, and another, until the system reported that a total of five Minuteman ICBMs had been launched.

“Petrov had to make a decision: Would he report an incoming American strike?” my then-colleague Max Fisher explained. “If he did, Soviet nuclear doctrine called for a full nuclear retaliation; there would be no time to double-check the warning system, much less seek negotiations with the US.”

Reporting it would have made a certain degree of sense. The Reagan administration had a far more hardline stance against the Soviets than the Carter, Ford, or Nixon

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...8E?cvid=f720c4f555874d0db4f40e5d7b22e268&ei=9
 
Actually, the closest we ever came to a nuclear war was this guy:

Admiral Vasily Arkhipov. He was in command of three diesel submarines sent to Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis. The USN had found his sub, the B-59, and was hounding it mercilessly but not actually attacking it. As the heat became unbearable, the air running out, the sub's captain and the political officer wanted to launch their nuclear torpedo, loaded and ready to fire, and sink the carrier USS Randolph. Arkhipov, as commander of the three-submarine squadron who was aboard, had veto authority over this and refused to let the captain launch that torpedo.

USS+Randolph+16.jpg


Had he not done so, WW 3 would have started.

Another case is during the JFK Berlin crisis, the US Army was ordered into the field to their war start positions in Europe. At the time, this included something like upwards of 100+ M 29 Davy Crockett tactical nuclear weapons.

Davy-Crockett-scaled.jpg


Now, you have to realize that each weapon had a crew of three enlisted commanded by a junior sergeant running around in a jeep. All it would have taken was for one crew member to make a mistake and launch their nuke to start WW 3.

These were far more serious than a computer glitch as in each case, it took only one person to decide to fire, right or wrong.

JFK was one crazy SOB when it came to nuclear war. He was massively fucking dangerous in that respect, more so than any other president in US history.
 
We could have all been blessed
with the perfect peace
that comes only with non-existence.

Now we know who to blame for our still being stuck here.
 
guno said:
On September 26, 1983, the planet came terrifyingly close to a nuclear holocaust.

The Soviet Union’s missile attack early warning system displayed, in large red letters, the word “LAUNCH”; a computer screen stated to the officer on duty, Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, that it could say with “high reliability” that an American intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) had been launched and was headed toward the Soviet Union. First, it was just one missile, but then another, and another, until the system reported that a total of five Minuteman ICBMs had been launched.

“Petrov had to make a decision: Would he report an incoming American strike?” my then-colleague Max Fisher explained. “If he did, Soviet nuclear doctrine called for a full nuclear retaliation; there would be no time to double-check the warning system, much less seek negotiations with the US.”

Reporting it would have made a certain degree of sense. The Reagan administration had a far more hardline stance against the Soviets than the Carter, Ford, or Nixon

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...8E?cvid=f720c4f555874d0db4f40e5d7b22e268&ei=9
Click to expand...

Like the movie War Games. Terrifying.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
Actually, the closest we ever came to a nuclear war was this guy:

Admiral Vasily Arkhipov. He was in command of three diesel submarines sent to Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis. The USN had found his sub, the B-59, and was hounding it mercilessly but not actually attacking it. As the heat became unbearable, the air running out, the sub's captain and the political officer wanted to launch their nuclear torpedo, loaded and ready to fire, and sink the carrier USS Randolph. Arkhipov, as commander of the three-submarine squadron who was aboard, had veto authority over this and refused to let the captain launch that torpedo.

USS+Randolph+16.jpg


Had he not done so, WW 3 would have started.

Another case is during the JFK Berlin crisis, the US Army was ordered into the field to their war start positions in Europe. At the time, this included something like upwards of 100+ M 29 Davy Crockett tactical nuclear weapons.

Davy-Crockett-scaled.jpg


Now, you have to realize that each weapon had a crew of three enlisted commanded by a junior sergeant running around in a jeep. All it would have taken was for one crew member to make a mistake and launch their nuke to start WW 3.

These were far more serious than a computer glitch as in each case, it took only one person to decide to fire, right or wrong.

JFK was one crazy SOB when it came to nuclear war. He was massively fucking dangerous in that respect, more so than any other president in US history.
Click to expand...

As a 13 year old living in NYC there was fear by our folks when we went to school that would be the last they saw us, those were scary times . Thankfully cooler heads on both sides prevailed
 
Nordberg said:
We have been close 8 times that we know about. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nucl...f5ce4b0449ed5076e9b?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009 There should be no nukes.
Click to expand...

There are more incidents than those.

In any case, nukes are a two-edged sword. They have made major wars far less likely due to their presence. That we've gone close to 100 years now without a major war between major powers is a virtual first in history. If there were no nukes, we'd have had World War 3 already, and possibly a World War 4.

On the other hand, a nuclear war would be devastating. It wouldn't be the end of all civilization, but we all would definitely be fucked up by it.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
There are more incidents than those.

In any case, nukes are a two-edged sword. They have made major wars far less likely due to their presence. That we've gone close to 100 years now without a major war between major powers is a virtual first in history. If there were no nukes, we'd have had World War 3 already, and possibly a World War 4.

On the other hand, a nuclear war would be devastating. It wouldn't be the end of all civilization, but we all would definitely be fucked up by it.
Click to expand...

World war 3 is bad enough to contemplate. It would be horrendous, The weaponry that we have built and sold across the globe would produce global destruction. Nuclear war could end it all. https://time.com/6290977/nuclear-war-impact-essay/
 
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