Aides rush in and out of the White House Situation Room, swarming around the map of Berlin spread across the table before President John F. Kennedy. All eyes carefully assess the markers on the city's layout, indicating the division between West and East and the area where two opposing lines of tanks stand facing each other.
Tensions between the Soviets and Americans have reached a climax at Checkpoint Charlie. Any misstep could spell doom for the entire world. As Kennedy and his allies weigh risks and alternatives, an obscure document makes it to the President's desk. The words on the page describe an attack unlike anything the U.S. has ever launched, a strike so brutal that Kennedy himself becomes uneasy just by reading it.
The idea is almost immediately discarded, but then intelligence of a Soviet bomb detonating in Europe arrives. The tested weapon has unleashed an explosion hundreds of times stronger than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The Americans are forced to reassess their lethal plan, bringing the world one step closer to the age of nuclear war.
Stanislav Petrov's cool under pressure may have prevented something worse in '83.
ReplyDeleteExactly -
Deletehttps://historythings.com/stanislav-petrov-man-stopped-ww3-dies-77/
A few days ago USA launched minuteman III ICBM for test. 5200 miles
ReplyDeleteI was stationed in West Berlin back in the 1970's. fun place at times. other times not so much. and the Wall. yup. got to see it and it was something by then too. minefields, watch towers and guards. the 4 powers used to met at the 4 powers building ( we never called anything else) anyway. there was this air shaft that went down to the basement of the place. and we had to "guard "it anytime there was a meeting there. kind of funny really.
ReplyDelete4 teams of "spooks" with bug finding gear went thru the place. YUP. us, frogs and brits and then the Russians. then we where posted at the base of said air shaft for like 10-12 hours. guess what we overheard there ? what was on sale at what PX. best spots to eat
in West Berlin. the better whorehouses to go to. real state secret shit. yeah, right.
and then there was guard duty at the "prison" you know the one with Hess in it.
a 3 hour trip to hell and boredom if there ever was one.
BTW. did you know it takes 12-13 cans of Pledge to shine the top of a M-60 tank ?
home of OD shiny chrome lug nuts on the jeeps even. spit shine and pressed anything you wore. the place got old real fast. dave in pa.
I was stationed at the Berlin Brigade as an MP, worst posting I ever had because of that! I liked it better at Presido of San Fran 100X better!
DeleteI thought the Most Terrifying Cold War Event was the Soviet miscalculation of a nuclear bomb call " the Tsar " - mathmatics didnt see a catalyst variable or some such shit & caused a chain reaction ...
ReplyDeletealmost fried the atmosphere, ALL of it
The Russians were terrified of Airforce General Curtis E.Lemay. The idea that he may break loose from Kennedy's political posturing was a real and horrific threat to the Russian generals.
ReplyDeleteIronically, the man sitting 3 feet to my left (my 82 year old father in law we just recently moved in with us) is the guy who intercepted the communications detailing the missiles heading toward Cuba. At the time, he had no idea what exactly he was intercepting, but that was his job while in the air force. All he knew was his shift was over, and when he got up, the CO told him to "sit your ass back down and do not leave your station until you are instructed to". Sir, yes sir. And back down he went, headphones back on, writing as fast as he could. Eventually he was relieved from his station. I wasn't till months later, when he received a commendation from the higher ups did he find out what had actually transpired.
ReplyDeleteThe Cuban Missile Crisis was far worse than they let out at the time.
ReplyDeleteSomething that hardly ever gets talked about is how we removed the missiles we had in Turkey, in exchange for the Russian's removing their missiles from Cuba. We are only told how the Rooskies "backed down". We American's do need our myths.
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