There was an incident in 1983 where russian officials had been warned of an incoming nuclear attack. 4 missiles which would hit in roughly 3 hours. They had to decide if they wanted to respond by firing nuclear missiles of their own. The decision went to a 3 judge panel. The first 2 advisors said yes, fire nuclear missiles at the USA. The third man said no. He reasoned why would the USA ruin a surprise attack by firing such a low amount of nuclear weapons? If the USA was going to attack, it would attack with all it’s might. It wouldn’t fire just 4 missiles.
The approval for retaliation required all 3 to agree on a decision. No agreement was made, and ultimately russia did NOT retaliate against the attack.
Later, when no missiles hit russia, they realized it wasn’t missiles. It was clouds. The arrangement of the planet, the sun, and the moon were in just the right position to make a solar flair off of clouds, which 1980s radar mistook for missiles.
Now, let’s look at this from the USA’s perspective. It’s just a random Tuesday. And nothing happened. America wasn’t even made aware of the event until the 2000s.
But let’s imagine an alternate reality where the 3rd guy said yes. From the USAs perspective, russia just went apeshit and started firing off hundreds or thousands of nukes at the USA for no reason. Remember, they never did fire at russia, or even discuss it that day. They would have just looked at radar and realized they’d been attacked.
And in both the future and the past, both cases are just “oops, computer boo-boo”
So have fun sleeping tonight. Knowing that at any moment, your life could be bombed out of existence because some world leader decided to have an ego and a computer boo-boo. Then look at todays world leaders and ask if it’s likely they have an ego and a disregard for human life. I mean fucking hell, Putin will intentionally get his own men killed.
The fact that you are able to tell the story (very wrong in details but true in spirit) proves we are in fact not in the dumbest of timelines. At least we weren’t back then.
You’re confusing two different incidents. The missiles was stanislav petrov, who made the decision to not retaliate alone, as a lieutenant in a nuclear missile battery on land. The three man panel was a diesel electric sub that was trapped by NATO forces, and without contact with the kremlin for several days had to choose between surfacing and firing their nuclear torpedo. The captain and political officer voted to fire, but the third guy, who was some sort of admiral, refused to agree. So the sub surfaced, confirmed there was no war, and went back home.
Perhaps the closest was in 1995 when a US/Norwegian scientific rocket happened to enter the flight path an ICBM would take from US launchers to Moscow. The alert was sudden and fast-moving, and led to Yeltsin activating his launch codes and submarines placed on alert for imminent retaliation, the only time a nuclear state has been known to do so.
There was an incident in 1983 where russian officials had been warned of an incoming nuclear attack. 4 missiles which would hit in roughly 3 hours. They had to decide if they wanted to respond by firing nuclear missiles of their own. The decision went to a 3 judge panel. The first 2 advisors said yes, fire nuclear missiles at the USA. The third man said no. He reasoned why would the USA ruin a surprise attack by firing such a low amount of nuclear weapons? If the USA was going to attack, it would attack with all it’s might. It wouldn’t fire just 4 missiles.
The approval for retaliation required all 3 to agree on a decision. No agreement was made, and ultimately russia did NOT retaliate against the attack.
Later, when no missiles hit russia, they realized it wasn’t missiles. It was clouds. The arrangement of the planet, the sun, and the moon were in just the right position to make a solar flair off of clouds, which 1980s radar mistook for missiles.
Now, let’s look at this from the USA’s perspective. It’s just a random Tuesday. And nothing happened. America wasn’t even made aware of the event until the 2000s.
But let’s imagine an alternate reality where the 3rd guy said yes. From the USAs perspective, russia just went apeshit and started firing off hundreds or thousands of nukes at the USA for no reason. Remember, they never did fire at russia, or even discuss it that day. They would have just looked at radar and realized they’d been attacked.
And in both the future and the past, both cases are just “oops, computer boo-boo”
So have fun sleeping tonight. Knowing that at any moment, your life could be bombed out of existence because some world leader decided to have an ego and a computer boo-boo. Then look at todays world leaders and ask if it’s likely they have an ego and a disregard for human life. I mean fucking hell, Putin will intentionally get his own men killed.
We live in the dumbest timeline.
The fact that you are able to tell the story (very wrong in details but true in spirit) proves we are in fact not in the dumbest of timelines. At least we weren’t back then.
You’re confusing two different incidents. The missiles was stanislav petrov, who made the decision to not retaliate alone, as a lieutenant in a nuclear missile battery on land. The three man panel was a diesel electric sub that was trapped by NATO forces, and without contact with the kremlin for several days had to choose between surfacing and firing their nuclear torpedo. The captain and political officer voted to fire, but the third guy, who was some sort of admiral, refused to agree. So the sub surfaced, confirmed there was no war, and went back home.
every time i hear that story a few details are a little bit different.
It’s a mismash of a few true stories
It wasn’t even a panel, it was just a single guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident
I think someone’s filled a book from all the brushes with armageddon during the cold war. This was far from a rare occurence.
The number er of times we’ve been itching to destroy ourselves, you’d swear someone else had to be intervening to keep us from doing it
Perhaps the closest was in 1995 when a US/Norwegian scientific rocket happened to enter the flight path an ICBM would take from US launchers to Moscow. The alert was sudden and fast-moving, and led to Yeltsin activating his launch codes and submarines placed on alert for imminent retaliation, the only time a nuclear state has been known to do so.
But, wait! There’s more!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_close_calls
I’d save that page for the morning.