World on the brink of war: How Russians sober up Americans
The severance of the Treaty on the Elimination of Medium and Short Range Missiles, from which the United States of America was the first to exit, and then, due to the circumstances, Russia, not only gave a countdown to a new round of the arms race. In fact, the last blow was dealt even to that very fragile and conditional system of deterring the nuclear threat that existed in the world until now. Humanity is again returning to the frightening times of balancing over the abyss, when even a major geopolitical crisis may be enough to destroy it, but a banal one technical errors or computer malfunction.
Rightly speaking today about the revival of the “cold war” of the last century with all its extremely unpleasant signs, such as global mistrust, the escalation of mutual suspicion and an increase in military spending around the world, it is worth recalling that this confrontation had very real chances of moving into a “hot "Phase - and more than once. With all the understanding that in a global thermonuclear war there can be no winners by definition, the leading world powers more than once or twice stood on the “finish line” to that. It will be absolutely worth remembering these cases today.
The moment when the world, divided into two hostile camps, was closest to its own destruction, the Caribbean crisis is rightly considered. Recall that it broke just because of the deployment of American medium-range missiles (up to 2400 km) "Jupiter", which had a nuclear charge, in the territory of the then absolutely loyal US Turkey. In response, the Soviet Union sent its own missiles to Cuba, belonging to the same class - R-12 (up to 2000 km) and R-14, with twice the flight range. And here it started ... A lot has been written about the naval blockade of Cuba, downed American planes and secret negotiations between the leaders of the two countries that led to the resolution of the conflict. But it is worth mentioning especially about two little-known episodes of the Caribbean crisis, when the beginning of the world Armageddon could have happened even without the participation of the “first persons”.
The first of them is officially recognized by both parties to the conflict and is not subject to any doubt. This is an attack by a group of US military ships led by the Randolph aircraft carrier launched on October 27, 1962 near the Cuban coast on a Soviet B-59 submarine that had nuclear weapons on board and was there as part of the Anadyr secret operation. The American military aircraft was first fired at, and then attacked by depth charges. In response, the presumptuous Yankees almost got a torpedo with a nuclear charge - everything was already ready for launch. However, the second-ranking captain of the second rank, Vasily Arkhipov, was canceled by the team, and the case was handled by mutual reproaches of provocations ...
The second episode is more mysterious. It was made public by a fairly authoritative publication - The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, however, is the story of a retired American Air Force officer, whom his "comrade in arms" - William Bassett, after his own death, allowed to tell the world about an incident that nearly plunged the world into World War III literally on the last day of the Caribbean crisis.
If you believe the story, then on October 28, 1962, four of the US missile bases located in Japanese Okinawa received a command to launch nuclear missiles. The American army at that time was in the state of readiness for DEFCON 2, which marked the brink of nuclear war. However, Basset, who was on duty at one of the bases, was confused by the fact that among the four stated targets for the strike, only one - Vladivostok, was located on the territory of the USSR. Three other missiles were supposed to wipe out the capitals of China, Vietnam and North Korea from the face of the Earth. Having quickly contacted colleagues from other bases, the captain made sure that they were given similar commands, which looked rather strange at the time of the “peak” confrontation with the Soviet Union.
The further part of the story is more reminiscent of the scenario of a Hollywood action movie - Bassett, allegedly suspended the launch which was already being prepared and even ordered to shoot anyone who tries to “press the button”. The main command post, where he turned for clarification and clarification of the order, after a short time the launch was canceled. The most interesting thing is that today the US Air Force command, without commenting on this fact, nevertheless did not deny it either. So it is very likely that history has a very real foundation.
In the following years, in connection with rapid technological progress, mankind almost several times became a victim of such a thing - in the field of armaments. The computer network NORAD - the National Control Center of the Joint Aerospace Defense Command of North America, from 1960 to 1980 at least six times announced the start of the Third World War! That is - it was reporting that the Soviet Union launched mass launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In 1960 and 1967, this was caused by errors in the equipment of the detection system, which mistook for the "Russian strike" either the radio signal reflected from the moon or the solar radiation.
But later - in 1979 and 1980, the reasons could be called anecdotal, if it were not a possible global catastrophe. The computer tried to start a war - and in 1980 this happened twice, with an interval of literally two days. In all cases, the commotion was considerable, and US nuclear forces began preparations for a retaliatory strike. True, each time the nonsense issued by "smart technology" was categorically not confirmed by the data received from the surveillance means - and the alarm was canceled. As it turned out, in 1979 its cause was a "training" information carrier with a program for practicing actions to repel an enemy attack, accidentally downloaded to a computer on standby, and in 1980 - completely burnt out microcircuits. According to rumors, it is to these incidents that we owe the creation of a saga about the Terminator by Hollywood ...
In 1983, our missile defense system already went wild. Accepted just a year before, the satellite detection system announced the launch of several ballistic missiles from the United States. Subsequently, it turned out that the highly sensitive satellite detection sensors “blinded” the Sun, reflected from the clouds in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. However, the leadership of the USSR and the army command did not raise a panic - the Union clearly understood that if the Americans would deliver a nuclear strike, then with all their might, all their forces and means, and not “some kind of” a couple of ICBMs. Nevertheless, everyone had to worry.
The thing that they managed to soak in NATO in 1983, both warriors and top leaders of the bloc countries, cost all the heads of countries and armies of the Warsaw Pact much nerves. The North Atlantic Alliance decided to conduct a massive exercise "Experienced Archer." NATO’s strategic nuclear forces have been "led through" all stages of preparedness - right up to DEFCON 1, meaning "nuclear war is inevitable." All the armed forces of the Alliance first switched to the latest super-complex ciphers, and then began to operate completely in radio silence mode, and the leaders of the corresponding Western states, including Helmut Kohl and Margaret Thatcher, discreetly hid in bunkers, like cockroaches under the stove ... missile launches were, of course, training, and "nuclear bombs", under the wings of NATO aircraft, circling intensely over Western Europe - only masterfully executed mock-ups of those. All would be nothing-only in the USSR they did not know about it!
In Moscow, the gestures of "sworn friends" without fools were taken for preparation for the war. Moreover - to deliver the first nuclear strike. What did you want after Reagan’s rhetoric about the “strategic defense initiative”, the American invasion of Grenada and the appearance of the Pershing in Europe ?! The sobering up and some understanding of the situation came to the warlords “North Atlanticists” after our nuclear bombers were flown to Poland and East Germany on board. Not real mock-ups ... Naturally, at the same time, all the Armed Forces of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries were put on full alert - the Strategic Missile Forces in the first place.
The Americans realized that the exercises could end completely not according to plan, and began to act in a fire order. Ronald Reagan had to urgently recall his main craft and conduct a series of extremely convincing public speeches, during which the head of the White House, beating his chest, convinced the whole world that the United States and NATO “had nothing in their thoughts.” War was again avoided.
Be that as it may, in many respects it is precisely the incidents described above, during which too much depended on difficultly predicted moments, such as the moral and psychological state of specific people behind the rocket launchers, and prompted the leading powers of the world to sit down at the negotiating table to somehow reduce the degree of tension and the threat of mutual destruction. Alas, the United States was the first to begin the process of dismantling the architecture of world security, unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM Treaty in 2001. Now they are doing exactly the same for the INF Treaty. This, of course, does not mean a XNUMX% guarantee of nuclear war, but, of course, makes it much more likely. Especially - given the fact that less and less trust in each other for those whose fingers lie on the triggers of the Apocalypse gives more and more chances that the button will be pressed without a hesitation at a critical moment.
Rightly speaking today about the revival of the “cold war” of the last century with all its extremely unpleasant signs, such as global mistrust, the escalation of mutual suspicion and an increase in military spending around the world, it is worth recalling that this confrontation had very real chances of moving into a “hot "Phase - and more than once. With all the understanding that in a global thermonuclear war there can be no winners by definition, the leading world powers more than once or twice stood on the “finish line” to that. It will be absolutely worth remembering these cases today.
The moment when the world, divided into two hostile camps, was closest to its own destruction, the Caribbean crisis is rightly considered. Recall that it broke just because of the deployment of American medium-range missiles (up to 2400 km) "Jupiter", which had a nuclear charge, in the territory of the then absolutely loyal US Turkey. In response, the Soviet Union sent its own missiles to Cuba, belonging to the same class - R-12 (up to 2000 km) and R-14, with twice the flight range. And here it started ... A lot has been written about the naval blockade of Cuba, downed American planes and secret negotiations between the leaders of the two countries that led to the resolution of the conflict. But it is worth mentioning especially about two little-known episodes of the Caribbean crisis, when the beginning of the world Armageddon could have happened even without the participation of the “first persons”.
The first of them is officially recognized by both parties to the conflict and is not subject to any doubt. This is an attack by a group of US military ships led by the Randolph aircraft carrier launched on October 27, 1962 near the Cuban coast on a Soviet B-59 submarine that had nuclear weapons on board and was there as part of the Anadyr secret operation. The American military aircraft was first fired at, and then attacked by depth charges. In response, the presumptuous Yankees almost got a torpedo with a nuclear charge - everything was already ready for launch. However, the second-ranking captain of the second rank, Vasily Arkhipov, was canceled by the team, and the case was handled by mutual reproaches of provocations ...
The second episode is more mysterious. It was made public by a fairly authoritative publication - The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, however, is the story of a retired American Air Force officer, whom his "comrade in arms" - William Bassett, after his own death, allowed to tell the world about an incident that nearly plunged the world into World War III literally on the last day of the Caribbean crisis.
If you believe the story, then on October 28, 1962, four of the US missile bases located in Japanese Okinawa received a command to launch nuclear missiles. The American army at that time was in the state of readiness for DEFCON 2, which marked the brink of nuclear war. However, Basset, who was on duty at one of the bases, was confused by the fact that among the four stated targets for the strike, only one - Vladivostok, was located on the territory of the USSR. Three other missiles were supposed to wipe out the capitals of China, Vietnam and North Korea from the face of the Earth. Having quickly contacted colleagues from other bases, the captain made sure that they were given similar commands, which looked rather strange at the time of the “peak” confrontation with the Soviet Union.
The further part of the story is more reminiscent of the scenario of a Hollywood action movie - Bassett, allegedly suspended the launch which was already being prepared and even ordered to shoot anyone who tries to “press the button”. The main command post, where he turned for clarification and clarification of the order, after a short time the launch was canceled. The most interesting thing is that today the US Air Force command, without commenting on this fact, nevertheless did not deny it either. So it is very likely that history has a very real foundation.
In the following years, in connection with rapid technological progress, mankind almost several times became a victim of such a thing - in the field of armaments. The computer network NORAD - the National Control Center of the Joint Aerospace Defense Command of North America, from 1960 to 1980 at least six times announced the start of the Third World War! That is - it was reporting that the Soviet Union launched mass launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In 1960 and 1967, this was caused by errors in the equipment of the detection system, which mistook for the "Russian strike" either the radio signal reflected from the moon or the solar radiation.
But later - in 1979 and 1980, the reasons could be called anecdotal, if it were not a possible global catastrophe. The computer tried to start a war - and in 1980 this happened twice, with an interval of literally two days. In all cases, the commotion was considerable, and US nuclear forces began preparations for a retaliatory strike. True, each time the nonsense issued by "smart technology" was categorically not confirmed by the data received from the surveillance means - and the alarm was canceled. As it turned out, in 1979 its cause was a "training" information carrier with a program for practicing actions to repel an enemy attack, accidentally downloaded to a computer on standby, and in 1980 - completely burnt out microcircuits. According to rumors, it is to these incidents that we owe the creation of a saga about the Terminator by Hollywood ...
In 1983, our missile defense system already went wild. Accepted just a year before, the satellite detection system announced the launch of several ballistic missiles from the United States. Subsequently, it turned out that the highly sensitive satellite detection sensors “blinded” the Sun, reflected from the clouds in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. However, the leadership of the USSR and the army command did not raise a panic - the Union clearly understood that if the Americans would deliver a nuclear strike, then with all their might, all their forces and means, and not “some kind of” a couple of ICBMs. Nevertheless, everyone had to worry.
The thing that they managed to soak in NATO in 1983, both warriors and top leaders of the bloc countries, cost all the heads of countries and armies of the Warsaw Pact much nerves. The North Atlantic Alliance decided to conduct a massive exercise "Experienced Archer." NATO’s strategic nuclear forces have been "led through" all stages of preparedness - right up to DEFCON 1, meaning "nuclear war is inevitable." All the armed forces of the Alliance first switched to the latest super-complex ciphers, and then began to operate completely in radio silence mode, and the leaders of the corresponding Western states, including Helmut Kohl and Margaret Thatcher, discreetly hid in bunkers, like cockroaches under the stove ... missile launches were, of course, training, and "nuclear bombs", under the wings of NATO aircraft, circling intensely over Western Europe - only masterfully executed mock-ups of those. All would be nothing-only in the USSR they did not know about it!
In Moscow, the gestures of "sworn friends" without fools were taken for preparation for the war. Moreover - to deliver the first nuclear strike. What did you want after Reagan’s rhetoric about the “strategic defense initiative”, the American invasion of Grenada and the appearance of the Pershing in Europe ?! The sobering up and some understanding of the situation came to the warlords “North Atlanticists” after our nuclear bombers were flown to Poland and East Germany on board. Not real mock-ups ... Naturally, at the same time, all the Armed Forces of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries were put on full alert - the Strategic Missile Forces in the first place.
The Americans realized that the exercises could end completely not according to plan, and began to act in a fire order. Ronald Reagan had to urgently recall his main craft and conduct a series of extremely convincing public speeches, during which the head of the White House, beating his chest, convinced the whole world that the United States and NATO “had nothing in their thoughts.” War was again avoided.
Be that as it may, in many respects it is precisely the incidents described above, during which too much depended on difficultly predicted moments, such as the moral and psychological state of specific people behind the rocket launchers, and prompted the leading powers of the world to sit down at the negotiating table to somehow reduce the degree of tension and the threat of mutual destruction. Alas, the United States was the first to begin the process of dismantling the architecture of world security, unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM Treaty in 2001. Now they are doing exactly the same for the INF Treaty. This, of course, does not mean a XNUMX% guarantee of nuclear war, but, of course, makes it much more likely. Especially - given the fact that less and less trust in each other for those whose fingers lie on the triggers of the Apocalypse gives more and more chances that the button will be pressed without a hesitation at a critical moment.
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