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Since it's not defined in the article, the "DEW Line" is the Distant Early Warning like, a string of radar stations in the far northern regions of Canada design
by pimlottc 4y ago
Since it's not defined in the article, the "DEW Line" is the Distant Early Warning like, a string of radar stations in the far northern regions of Canada designed during the Cold War to provide early warning of incoming planes or troops from the Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Early_Warning_Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Early_Warning_Line
- capekwasright 4y agoIn an episode released a few years back, Omega Tau spoke with two individuals who had worked on the DEW Line back in the day: https://omegataupodcast.net/248-dew-sage-and-the-f-106-delta-dart/ https://omegataupodcast.net/248-dew-sage-and-the-f-106-delta...
- eggy 4y agoIt didn't seem to help Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze in the 1984 movie Red Dawn ;) Interesting NATO is disbanded in that movie, and the harvest in the Ukraine suffers for some reason (blight? war?).
- sidewndr46 4y agoOf course, that was the Cubans that invaded.
- tablespoon 4y ago> Of course, that was the Cubans that invaded. In the backstory for the movie it wasn't just the Cubans. The Russians directly led it, and also Mexico went Communist and the invasion actually proceeded from there, so I'd assume Mexican forces participated as well. That would have been obscured because the main antagonist characters were a Russian commander and a Cuban commander. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn#Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn#Plot: > In an alternate 1980s, the United States is strategically isolated after NATO is disbanded. At the same time, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies aggressively expand. In addition, the Ukrainian wheat harvest fails while a socialist coup d'état occurs in Mexico.
- imwillofficial 4y agoIt’s like the exact story happened in reverse
- jacquesm 4y agoExcept for the small detail that nobody cares about invading Russia.
- macintux 4y agoChina might, as Siberia warms and Russia’s military forces are depleted.
- imwillofficial 4y agoNo, China has no interest in this.
- dragonwriter 4y agoChina has an interest in the normalization of reconquest and regional spheres of influence superceding other norms, and an interest in both Russia and the West being focussed on conflict in Europe.
- rnk 4y agoYes, because the next big attack of a major country invading a weaker democratic country will be China invading Taiwan. Unless Russia gives up on that meany Ukraine and attacks the belligerent Moldavia (expands the separatist region) because they want a victory.
- imwillofficial 4y agoThe remaining Azov troops just surrender in Mariupol, they have been winning pretty hard lately.
- tablespoon 4y ago> It didn't seem to help Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze in the 1984 movie Red Dawn ;) Interesting NATO is disbanded in that movie, and the harvest in the Ukraine suffers for some reason (blight? war?). Of course. The DEW line was mean to warn against a Soviet nuclear attack, but in that movie no such attack occurs.
- HideousKojima 4y agoActually the downed jet pilot mentions DC, NYC, and a few other cities getting nuked.
- tablespoon 4y ago> Actually the downed jet pilot mentions DC, NYC, and a few other cities getting nuked. Oh, that's totally possible. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, and I just recall that nukes didn't feature in the plot at all.
- HWR_14 4y agoThe Ukraine harvest suffering isn't as random as you might think. It produced the majority of the food for the Warsaw block, and avoiding a famine leading to revolution is a good reason to start a major war. NATO being dissolved is pretty deterministic as well. The average American in 1984 couldn't conceive of the Russians actually making it all the way over to the US. Nuking the US, but not a successful land invasion. So there had to be some reason the US got weaker. NATO dissolving doesn't put any blame for that on the US, which is important for a flag-waving film.
- tablespoon 4y ago> So there had to be some reason the US got weaker. NATO dissolving doesn't put any blame for that on the US, which is important for a flag-waving film. I don't recall exactly where I read it (it was some interview or something with the people who made the movie 10+ years ago), but I think it was a little more extreme than that. IIRC, (the perhaps unstated) bit of the backstory was domino theory was true and the US was badly on the wrong end of it. The NATO dissolving thing was just part of the picture.
- aksss 4y ago> Average American in 1984 couldn't conceive.... "Couldn't conceive" is pretty strong - it was the era of the Cold War, GI Joe, a hangover from the Cuban Missile Crisis, the contras. Maybe accurate to say the average American would find it highly improbable, and our eventual victory always assured because Chuck Norris, Rambo, and the inherent virtue of our cause against totalitarianism. Anyway, I think the paratroopers that appear in Red Dawn are from Cuba or a socialist country in Central/South America, right? Which isn't terribly far-fetched in the context of the eighties imagination - maybe more accessible idea than a Soviet D-Day-style invasion. Also not out of line in history - didn't the Germans court the Mexicans in WWII? The French during the Civil War (I use the word "court" loosely with the French 'intervention', but hell, we got a holiday out of it). The film was marketed saying that no foreign invasion of US soil had happened, though it ignored the Japanese invasion of Alaska. The "average American" probably still doesn't think of Alaska very often except for reality TV, much less its history. https://www.archaeology.org/issues/433-2107/letter-from/9780-alaska-wwii-battle https://www.archaeology.org/issues/433-2107/letter-from/9780...
- wombatpm 4y agoTom Cruise was not in Red Dawn In the 1984 movie, paratroopers dropped from supposed commercial flights, which was the approach the USSR used for their 1980 invasion of Afghanistan Nukes were used later against the Chinese, which was why there were 500 million screaming Chinese in our side. 13 year old me was a big fan of the movie. John has a big mustache. The chair is against the wall.
- mzs 4y agoThe Soviets did not parachute from commercial flights during Storm-333.
- skmurphy 4y agoI had to look up "John has a long mustache. The chair is against the wall. " They are explained in this blog post. https://www.housemorningwood.com/red-dawn-code-words-and-wolverines/ https://www.housemorningwood.com/red-dawn-code-words-and-wol... "John has a long mustache" is a callback to the movie "The Longest Day" as a signal to French Resistance.
- rnk 4y agoNow those kids look like my nightmare vision of the American Taliban.
- eggy 4y agoExcept if there ever is an incident, and something like those kids save your ass. I've watched many people intellectualize something, and then when it gets visceral, reach for the thing they repulsed or detested before. Sort of what happened during 9/11. I was a middle of the road kind of guy, half dove, half hawk. I grew up in a violent neighborhood fighting when I didn't want to. Four years of military school, and I watched my more dovish friends go total hawk.
- rnk 4y agoThose kids are my cousins kind of, in a sense based on where I come from and the people that I go home to visit. I don't think I have any misperceptions about the good things that those people can do and the hard work that let's say "rural people" do in their lives. But I also have learned they're pretty much universally believing in things that are not true, from the election being stolen to q&a stuff and an unfortunate fixation on racism. Pretty much they're mostly influenced by Fox News, their elders more than the younger generation, but plenty of people in the younger generation have inherited some kind of white grievance. I see those kinds of people as really unhappy because they see that there is not a good economic future in general for people in farming and rural areas. In my family the people that still have farms call them hobby farms and they have real jobs out in the world doing something.
- aksss 4y agoTom Cruise wasn't in Red Dawn, as I recall - maybe thinking about Charlie Sheen (the discount Tom Cruise)? Yes, wheat harvest fails in Ukraine, coup in Mexico, NATO disbanded. Cuban paratroopers in the first wave if I recall correctly. Still a highly enjoyable movie - one of the best eighties adventure flicks.
- eggy 4y agoHah, the discount Tom Cruise, that's funny! Yeah, I saw it in 1984, so it's been a while. My mind is slipping. Navy Seals (1990) was Charlie Sheen. Could have been better with Tom Cruise!
- JackFr 4y agoThe US Navy also maintained a picket on both east and west coasts about 500 miles offshore with overlapping radars. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian-class_radar_picket_ship https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian-class_radar_picket_... My father as a newly minted ensign in 1958 served aboard the USS Interpreter and would recall fondly one of his first conversations with the captain. My father asked about how the analysts they reported contacts to would know “when it was the real one”. To which the captain laughed “You damn fool. They’ll know it’s the real one when we don’t report in.”
- lostlogin 4y agoIt seems amazing that you could build 63 radar setups that were manned with just 500 tons of supplies.