September 26th, 1983: The day the world almost died

Daily Mail ^ | 29th December 2007 | Tony Rennel

[cbkaty]

All extremely plausible....

Thanks for a good read this morning!

[The Drowning Witch]

GREAT read.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

[AmericaUnited]

That the U. S. and the Soviet Union had been on the brink of world war in 1962, when John Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev went head-to-head over missiles in Cuba, is well known.

My understanding is that the CIA knew how few functional missiles/nukes the Soviets really had, and that Kennedy knew the Sovets were bluffing, so the dramatic standoff was not as real as it is made out to be. Like threatening an all out fight to the death, knowing your opponent has two broken arms, and knowing that they know you know. To onlookers, it looks like something exciting might happen, but not really.

[samtheman]

Then Reagan, successor at the White House to Jimmy Carter, upped the ante in a provocative speech in which he denounced the Soviet Union as 'the Evil Empire'.

It's hard to estimate what a genius move this was on the part of Reagan, this labeling of the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire.

First of all, it was absolutely true. They were an empire, and they were evil.

But more important than that, with the fantastic success of the Star Wars movies (two to-date by that time, or was it three?) the concept "Evil Empire" was out there in the American mind in a big way and it was only a matter of time before the leftists snatched it up and applied it to America.

Reagan beat them to the punch and used the phrase properly before the leftists could mis-apply it to us.

Reagan was a genius. On many levels.

[EBH]

Good read, even if it bent on blaming the US if we had gone to war.

[mazda77]

How right on target you are! I was serving at the Comm Center in Tehran then. The teletypes were going nuts and everyone was called in on alert and prepared for issuance of weapons which we were not supposed to have available to us.

[Hot Tabasco]

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock

Is that a Timex or Casio?

[GoforBroke]

“successor at the White House to Jimmy Carter, upped the ante in a provocative speech in which he denounced the Soviet Union as ‘the Evil Empire’.”

The day his nads dropped.

[GOP_Lady]

PING for later reading.

[kjam22]

“how about a nice game of chess?”

[visualops]

unflagging attempts to ruin their time in office

I for one am sick and tired of the MSM. They're like a whiny brat that never gets punished.

[gusopol3]

isn’t the historical record established that JFK backed down and pulled strategic assets out of Turkey? I think they were supposed to be somewhat obsolescent missiles, but the Soviets were glad to be rid of them.

[Arrowhead1952]

Thanks. Great read. Just imagine what the world will be like if “My Mood, I’m in a jihad” ever gets his hands on nukes.

[ditto h]

Thank you. Great read.

[xc1427]

Thanks for posting the article and God only knows how many close calls existed during the Cold War.

[RayChuang88]

JFK could afford to dismantle the Jupiter missiles armed with the W49 1.45 MT warhead because by 1962, the US Navy's George Washington class submarines were in wide service, and unlike the Jupiter missiles (which required a complicated launch sequence due to the use of liquid oxygen as oxidizer fuel), the Polaris missiles were out at sea and could be fired with only a few minutes' notice.

[Adder]

O M G

[rellimpank]

-bflr-

[Kozak]

My understanding is that the CIA knew how few functional missiles/nukes the Soviets really had, and that Kennedy knew the Sovets were bluffing, so the dramatic standoff was not as real as it is made out to be.

Except that SOME of the missiles became operational during the crisis AND the Soviet general on the ground had orders to use his tactical nukes ( about which we did not know) in the event of an invasion, AND nut job Fidel was urging the Soviets to launch. It really was a close call.

[pyx]

Some time back in the late 1960’s a nuclear sub sank.Only a US satalite recorded it. Howard Hughs built a special ship (Glomar Challenger)to recover it. According to reports, the part of the sub with missles broke off and sank back into the sea.

This is some of the top secret info that was spilled by the Dems when it was revealed to them in the Watergate hearings.

Apologies if I am incorrect, but wasn't Howard Hughes ship the Glomar Explorer ? And wasn't the Soviet vessel K-129 recovery project called Project Jennifer and didn't it happen around the mid-1970's ?

Again, apologies if I am mistaken.