Internet 1983 the brink of apocalypse

[PennyBlack]

In 1983 there was a series of incidents which almost triggered a nuclear exchange between both NATO and the USSR.
I read about it and unfortunatly I cannot watch the documentory about it because of British (regional) censorship. I've tried YouTube and almost every link on the search engine that was offered but not one worked or my internet crashed.
I would like to know if anyone can provide a valid, working link for me to watch the documentary which is called...
1983 the brink of apocalypse, which was made by Channel 4 in Britain a few years ago.

Why would they ban this documentory.? It's history and I remember a Korean airliner being shot down dureing this time.

 

[DaveS]

Was it this one: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident"]1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Codz]

Oh thats one of the most interesting incidents in cold war history. It's interesting to know how close we came to global nuclear war.

 

[PennyBlack]

Was it this one: 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, I believe so or a very similar incident.

It was also called operation "Able Archer" a war game which went wrong.

 

[Jarvitä]

It didn't exactly "go wrong", the USSR just misinterpreted it as a preparation for a first strike by NATO, based on the non-evidence of a spike in encrypted communication between the UK and USA (which was really Thatcher complaining to Reagan about the invasion of Grenada).

 

[N_Molson]

Good thing they had a competent and well-trained officer in front of the consoles.

I was like a few months old.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I remember both incidents, Able Archer and KAL-007.

It still boggles my mind how a pilot can mistake the profile of a 747 for that of a KC-10 (or was it a KC-135?).

 

[SiberianTiger]

It still boggles my mind how a pilot can mistake the profile of a 747 for that of a KC-10 (or was it a KC-135?).

RC-135:

If I had seen something like that from tail at 3 a.m. local time and had a direct order to shoot, I'd shoot.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Yeah, I guess you're right. From the tail-side I could see how the view would be distorted. And of course often the brain makes a person 'see' what they expect to see. But as a gun owner/sportsman one of the first rules of engagement is to "Know your target".

From the military perspective (much more autocratic, believe me I know), one does what they are told, and when... Fight like we train, train like we fight.

 

[Wishbone]

False alarms were not uncommon. However, people got mightily upset when Ronnie Reagan tested the mike in Congress, saying

MY FELLOW AMERICANS I AM PLEASED TO TELL YOU TODAY THAT I HAVE SIGNED LEGISLATION THAT WILL OUTLAW RUSSIA FOREVER. WE BEGIN BOMBING IN FIVE MINUTES

No comment...

EDIT: am attaching the sound file...

 

[Urwumpe]

You have to differ there a bit:

Able Archer was the reason why the tension was so high at that time, but it was not the cause of the false alerts. Able Archer was literally the biggest waste of tax payers money possible. a lot of noise and lack of sensibility.

The Korean 747 incident also fell in that paranoid period, but had a few causes in its chain of small bad things, that could have cause its demise even during more peaceful times. The Korean crew, the Japanese ATC and the Russians simply did everything wrong they could have done wrong to escalate the situation.

Especially the Japanese: They granted the Korean flight a higher flight level, but didn't actually care about where the flight was.

 

[PennyBlack]

It was close, very close and I remember thinking when the Americans blasted the Russians for the shooting down of that airliner.. "We might get it". My parents where somewhat concerned. Liveing under the bomb was hard and I remember my parents where quite fearful of it, even at a young age with Greenham Common being on the news almost every day, I was beginning to see the stress their world.
Funny, when your young and ill informed you don't know about the real effects of such weapons, yet sat in awe at their devestating effects and loved the tv shows about them going off. But you cannot un-invent it can you. And I have to say it has served as a deterrent in my eyes. I'm getting mellow in my older age and wouldn't use the bomb on anyone.
I only seem to want to shot looters nowadays.

 

[Urwumpe]

I had a terribly bad opinion on nuclear weapons when I was a child, and this did not become much better when I was in the army and trained for surviving such explosions (Yes, it is possible. No, it is not nice at all. No, it is not guaranteed you will survive, even if you do everything right).

I like to watch such explosions on historic documentations far far away in a different world, but I don't want to see an explosion during my lifetime.

 

[RisingFury]

I'm getting mellow in my older age and wouldn't use the bomb on anyone.
I only seem to want to shot looters nowadays.

How civilized of you :thumbup:

 

[Ghostrider]

How civilized of you :thumbup:

Well, he said he wants to shoot them, not nuke them. You know, like "By Jove, there's a chav looting that nice store 30 meters from here. Let's hit him with a 500kt nuclear warhead, that will teach him a lesson. Cup of tea?"

 

[Notebook]

Re: Nuclear war, a nice item from a contemporary review of what might have
happened after an exchange of missiles with the USSR:

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/?action=view&current=img048-1.jpg

BLUE STREAK related of course...

N.

 

[Notebook]

Duplicate, please delete.

N.

 

[Codz]

People seem to forget that we are still under "The Bomb". Things seem more unstable now than back then. There was a status quo back then, now you've got all these smaller, less predictable countries getting their hands on nukes. The nuke may not be front page news anymore but it is certainly still there. I personally am glad for it. Nuclear weapons may have great destructive power but that power keeps most large countries at peace with each other.

 

[PennyBlack]

Well, he said he wants to shoot them, not nuke them. You know, like "By Jove, there's a chav looting that nice store 30 meters from here. Let's hit him with a 500kt nuclear warhead, that will teach him a lesson. Cup of tea?"

Tea, yes but that's so 1815, and it would be a little illogical to radiate one self when we can minimise the effects. A mix of the two perhaps. A nuclear grenade. Something Top Gear presenters would love to throw from the skylight of a caravan.

A retalitory strike is mutually assured destruction. A first strike is self assured destruction so it's no win and man has shown that logic to date but the shadow grows. A film called "On the beach" tells me I'm sc**w'd because I haven't got a nuclear sub so I'm hopeing China and India and the rest in research are as good with those consoles as they were back in 1983. A television documentory made in the sixtees, dureing a narrated "Threads" style story about a nuclear war, predicted that one country by the eightees would most likely suffer a nuclear exchange.
A good prediction that came true, but without the storyline thrown in and a war game used those bombs.

 

[orbitingpluto]

You can't have nuclear hand grenades!

Ahem.

Keep calm and carry on.:tiphat: