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But we didn’t blow ourselves back to the stone age in the 50s and 60s. This fate turned out to be not quite as inevitable as “A Canticle” would seem to suggest.

But we didn’t blow ourselves back to the stone age in the 50s and 60s. This fate turned out to be not quite as inevitable as “A Canticle” would seem to suggest. Yet evidence pointing to this outcome was all around us during the Cold War, right up to the late 1980s. Development of new and more potent weapons. Serious accidents or near accidents - one crazy one I remember hearing about was one side almost launching a retaliatory barrage when the radar gave a false positive for an incoming attack. Proxy wars. Opaque succession plans in the USSR, China, North Korea, and Cuba. Sabre-rattling and standoffs all over the world. In elementary school in the 1970s we didn't have to do "Duck and Cover" but we did have drills involving classes marching in a line down to the basement which had signs marking it as a "Fallout Shelter." Sometimes I still see them. (History: https://www.wgbh.org/news/2018/01/23/local-news/what-do-those-fallout-shelter-signs-actually-mean https://www.wgbh.org/news/2018/01/23/local-news/what-do-thos...) When I got a little older, I can't tell you how unsettling it was to see serious looking people talking on the nightly news about some incident on the North Korean border, or a power struggle in Moscow after Brezhnev died, or how many thousands of ICBMs each side had pointing at each other. How fucked up is it that 15 year old me understood concepts like MIRV (https://armscontrolcenter.org/multiple-independently-targetable-reentry-vehicle-mirv/ https://armscontrolcenter.org/multiple-independently-targeta...) or the U.S. maintaining a bunch of B-52s loaded with nukes in the air at all times? The news we saw and read was reinforced through pop culture that drove home the idea that we would blow ourselves to bits. In high school in the mid-1980s we were assigned Canticle as well as Neville Shute's On The Beach, which follows a similarly depressing narrative (northern hemisphere covered by radiation, southern slowly dying off, what people do as the inevitable gets closer). Red Dawn. Firefox. Reruns of Dr. Strangelove. Or the TV series The Day After. We couldn't believe it when crowds climbed on the Berlin Wall in November 1989. That's when people were able to rub their eyes and think just maybe we weren't going to kill ourselves.

badcppdev 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome Crazy times. 1960 - 1968 The United States flew nuclear armed bombers to the borders of the USSR 24 hours a day. Imagine if 'insert country name' flew armed bombers to the border of 'insert western country name' every day in 2022.
- ilamont 4y ago
  IIRC it was going on even longer than that, although perhaps on a reduced frequency. My barber worked at an air base in North Dakota late in the Cold War and mentioned something about that.
  - badcppdev 4y ago
    I would suggest reading some history books to round out stories like that.
- upsidesinclude 4y ago
  Not to get you nervous, but the Russians run bombers to the airspace of Alaska all the time. US jets intercept and turn them around. It's the expensive version of the border crossings between India & Pakistan
  - wahern 4y ago
    Don't they do this more like yearly? And they don't usually breach airspace generally considered sovereign, though they might fly into airspace the target country itself believes sovereign. AFAIU, these flights are similar to the yearly runs the U.S. Navy makes through some disputed territorial waters; that is, principally intended to preserve normative freedom of movement rights, albeit in a military context obviously serving strategic security interests.
    - upsidesinclude 4y ago
      No
      - wahern 4y ago
        Here's a typical news report which appears approximately yearly: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/10/20/norad-f-22s-intercept-russian-fighters-bombers-near-alaska/ https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/10/20... To wit, > F-22 Raptors from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, intercepted a group of Russian aircraft in international airspace near Alaska Monday night. > In a series of tweets early Tuesday morning, NORAD said the Raptors intercepted a pair of Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers escorted by Su-35 fighters. NORAD said it also identified a Russian A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft supporting the other Russian planes that “loitered” in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone and came within 30 nautical miles of Alaska’s shore. > NORAD said that all Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and at no time entered U.S. or Canadian airspace. Another example, from 2015: https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/russian-bombers-u-s-intercept-july-4/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/russian-bombers-u-s-... > The U.S. military performed two intercepts of Russians aircraft, though they never entered U.S. airspace, according to a U.S. military official. > In Alaska, F-22s took off to identify and track two TU-95 Bear bombers near the Southern coast. The two bombers were followed until they turned around. > [...] > Similarly off the coast of California, F-15s tracked two other TU-95s that had been detected near the coast of San Francisco. The incident in California was a rarity, because Russian forces don’t generally travel that far South. However, this was reminiscent of a similar flight Russia performed off the West coast on July 4 three years prior. If anything, their frequency is less than yearly, at least off the U.S. coast, especially before 2015 (and within the range of internet memory). They seem far more common (and aggressive) in Europe, which I expected. And I can't find one example where the Russian aircraft breached U.S. territorial airspace. Sincere question: can you provide examples? EDIT: Here's a 2008 story addressing Sarah Palin's claims about "incursions": https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/after-palins-interview-officials-say-theres-no-russia-threat/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/after-palins-inter... > The air-defense identification zone, almost completely over water, extends 12 miles past the perimeter of the United States. Most nations have similar areas. > However, no Russian military planes have been flying into that zone, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. > “To be very clear, there has not been any incursion in U.S. airspace in recent years,” Herritage said. > What Palin might have been referring to was a buffer zone of airspace that extends beyond the 12-mile strip. Although not recognized internationally as the United States’ to protect, the military watches it. > That zone is where there has been increased Russian bomber exercises, about 20 in the past two years. When Russian bombers enter that expanded area, sometimes called the outer air-defense identification zone by the military, U.S. or Canadian fighter jets are dispatched to check them, Herritage said.
AnimalMuppet 4y ago
In 1983, I was watching TV after my parents had gone off to bed. The Emergency Warning System came on, and I said "Hey, it's the Emergency Warning System!" I have never seen my father move that fast. That's the best measure I have of how deep the fear of nuclear war was. (It turned out to be a dam failure caused by flooding, and they were trying to warn everyone downstream to get out now. Nothing to do with nuclear war.)

badcppdev 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome Crazy times. 1960 - 1968 The United States flew nuclear armed bombers to the borders of the USSR 24 hours a day. Imagine if 'insert country name' flew armed bombers to the border of 'insert western country name' every day in 2022.

ilamont 4y ago
IIRC it was going on even longer than that, although perhaps on a reduced frequency. My barber worked at an air base in North Dakota late in the Cold War and mentioned something about that.
- badcppdev 4y ago
  I would suggest reading some history books to round out stories like that.
upsidesinclude 4y ago
Not to get you nervous, but the Russians run bombers to the airspace of Alaska all the time. US jets intercept and turn them around. It's the expensive version of the border crossings between India & Pakistan
- wahern 4y ago
  Don't they do this more like yearly? And they don't usually breach airspace generally considered sovereign, though they might fly into airspace the target country itself believes sovereign. AFAIU, these flights are similar to the yearly runs the U.S. Navy makes through some disputed territorial waters; that is, principally intended to preserve normative freedom of movement rights, albeit in a military context obviously serving strategic security interests.
  - upsidesinclude 4y ago
    No
    - wahern 4y ago
      Here's a typical news report which appears approximately yearly: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/10/20/norad-f-22s-intercept-russian-fighters-bombers-near-alaska/ https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2020/10/20... To wit, > F-22 Raptors from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, intercepted a group of Russian aircraft in international airspace near Alaska Monday night. > In a series of tweets early Tuesday morning, NORAD said the Raptors intercepted a pair of Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers escorted by Su-35 fighters. NORAD said it also identified a Russian A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft supporting the other Russian planes that “loitered” in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone and came within 30 nautical miles of Alaska’s shore. > NORAD said that all Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and at no time entered U.S. or Canadian airspace. Another example, from 2015: https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/russian-bombers-u-s-intercept-july-4/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/russian-bombers-u-s-... > The U.S. military performed two intercepts of Russians aircraft, though they never entered U.S. airspace, according to a U.S. military official. > In Alaska, F-22s took off to identify and track two TU-95 Bear bombers near the Southern coast. The two bombers were followed until they turned around. > [...] > Similarly off the coast of California, F-15s tracked two other TU-95s that had been detected near the coast of San Francisco. The incident in California was a rarity, because Russian forces don’t generally travel that far South. However, this was reminiscent of a similar flight Russia performed off the West coast on July 4 three years prior. If anything, their frequency is less than yearly, at least off the U.S. coast, especially before 2015 (and within the range of internet memory). They seem far more common (and aggressive) in Europe, which I expected. And I can't find one example where the Russian aircraft breached U.S. territorial airspace. Sincere question: can you provide examples? EDIT: Here's a 2008 story addressing Sarah Palin's claims about "incursions": https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/after-palins-interview-officials-say-theres-no-russia-threat/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/after-palins-inter... > The air-defense identification zone, almost completely over water, extends 12 miles past the perimeter of the United States. Most nations have similar areas. > However, no Russian military planes have been flying into that zone, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. > “To be very clear, there has not been any incursion in U.S. airspace in recent years,” Herritage said. > What Palin might have been referring to was a buffer zone of airspace that extends beyond the 12-mile strip. Although not recognized internationally as the United States’ to protect, the military watches it. > That zone is where there has been increased Russian bomber exercises, about 20 in the past two years. When Russian bombers enter that expanded area, sometimes called the outer air-defense identification zone by the military, U.S. or Canadian fighter jets are dispatched to check them, Herritage said.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago

In 1983, I was watching TV after my parents had gone off to bed. The Emergency Warning System came on, and I said "Hey, it's the Emergency Warning System!" I have never seen my father move that fast. That's the best measure I have of how deep the fear of nuclear war was. (It turned out to be a dam failure caused by flooding, and they were trying to warn everyone downstream to get out now. Nothing to do with nuclear war.)