Introversion

Sure, we’re all having a blast devastating the world in a nuclear holocaust but stop, just for a moment, and ponder the fact that 44 years ago this day, the world was launched on the path to nuclear crisis when a U2 spy plane detected Soviet SRBM and MRBM missiles on Cuban soil. Before it was all over, the United States, for the first and only time in its history, would have its alert level raised to DEFCON 2. It was that close….

How’s that for a scary Halloween story?

If you’re interested in reading a day-by-day account of this historic march to the brink of nuclear war, I will be posting daily updates in the IV Lounge. The following is today’s entry and is taken from: http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/index.htmland select NSC documents)

PS: For an engaging account of this event, watch THE MISSILES OF OCTOBER, probably the best movie ever done on this subject.

PPS: If you want to use DEFCON to try and simulate what the war might have looked like, try setting up a game with the following alliances: The US and Europe as Team 1, and the USSR and South America as Team 2 (the majority of SA was on the side of America during the crisis, but since we can't just play as Cuba, this will have to do. )

Day 1: Monday, October 15

"If there was ever a time I want to be right in my life, this is it."
-Arthur Lundahl, Director of the National Photographic
Interpretation Center, upon analyzing the photographs of the missiles

After analyzing the pictures from the Heyser flight, the National Photographic Interpretation Center found what they thought were more surface-to-air missile sites. Closer inspection revealed, however, six much larger missiles -- each 60 to 65 feet long. What the photo interpreters had discovered were SS-4 nuclear missiles. They immediately knew it would involve the president.

The photographs also were discovered to show the uncrating of IL-28 light bombers….

The picture that started it all:

To be fair, the US was asking for it when they tried to secretly invade Cuba.

There's lots of near catastrophic stories from the Cold War. Stanislav Petrov purportedly saved the world by not telling his commander about some nukes his equipment detected. He worked out it was a false alarm and luckily he was right. If he told his commander it's suggested they may have reacted without confirmation and inadvertently started a nuclear war themselves!

RedMenace wrote:To be fair, the US was asking for it when they tried to secretly invade Cuba.

Without a doubt that was a factor in this crisis, but just as much of a factor was Kennedy's weak performance at Vienna. Kruschev remarked that after Vienna, he "felt sorry" for Kennedy and believed he could push the young, inexperienced president into a corner. This is one of the key lessons of the CMC: the failure to accurately perceive the motivations and resolve of an opponent can lead to accidental war.

It is interesting to note that the Organization of American States voted 19-0 for the (spoiler! ) blockade against the USSR, despite the Bay of Pigs incident.

Preferably don't post the same thing in multiple forums. Use the delete button in your other thread before anyone replies.

Funny. When I clicked the image, right at the top of the screen was a banner featuring a big red button and the caption "click here to see something really stupid"!

KingAl wrote:Preferably don't post the same thing in multiple forums. Use the delete button in your other thread before anyone replies.

I posted this thread just to bring attention to the main discussion taking place in the IV Lounge (I am not sure that too many DEFCON players ever bother to look there). I think the best bet will be to just let this threat drift off (which is what I was expecting to happen) and keep the other thread in the lounge because, sooner or later, this topic is going to become more political and less about DEFCON.

That's the only reason for the double-post.

However, it people don't mind having this thread continue in the game forum, I'll just keep it here and delete the other thread.

What's the verdict? I don't know which way to go now!

I don't see what the big deal is, I don't look in the lounge, so I wouldn't have seen this thread if he hadn't posted it here. There's forum rules, and then there's nazism applying to the smallest infringement. Relax guy!

grim wrote:There's lots of near catastrophic stories from the Cold War. Stanislav Petrov purportedly saved the world by not telling his commander about some nukes his equipment detected. He worked out it was a false alarm and luckily he was right. If he told his commander it's suggested they may have reacted without confirmation and inadvertently started a nuclear war themselves!

i spent some time reading about the near misses.. definately an interesting and eery read, knowing how close it got a few times

My father was pretty close to Checkpoint Charlie and the Fulda Gap at this time back then. He was a Combat Engineer, which means that he would have been one of the talons of the eagle, as they say. When those thousands of Soviet tanks poured into Germany he almost certainly would have been incinerated and by default, I never would have existed.

He tells of one day towards the end of the crisis where he had fear in his eyes, and so did the men of the unit. Pulling gaurd duty on the border, it was his job to look across into the Warsaw Pact and watch the troops there. The weird thing is, when he looked through the binoculars at the men along the border, he saw the same fear in them.

Very close call indeed.

I would have missed this if it wasn't posted here as I only look in the defcon sections.

Leave the main thread in the lounge I guess but at least now I know to go and look for it.

I'll check out that film too I'ts something I've always know a bit about but always wanted to know more & never had time.

Cheers,
worto.[/img]