I used to think the Cold War was a done deal until I read about the 1983 war scare

back in school I just memorized dates and called it history. but last month I stumbled on a podcast about Stanislav Petrov and that false alarm in 1983 when the Soviet system said the US launched nukes. If that one guy hadn't trusted his gut instead of the computer, we'd be living in a radioactive alternate timeline right now. It really hit me how fragile everything is, one decision can flip the whole world. Has anyone else dug into those close call moments that could have changed everything?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellioth3716d ago

Submarine false alarms are a whole different level of terrifying I never even considered.

wyatt_mitchell2617d ago

Nah, you're overthinking it. The Cold War was mostly posturing and paranoia, one guy not pushing a button doesn't change the fact that both sides had way too much to lose to ever actually start a shooting war.

sage30816d ago

Yeah but my buddy was in a sub during a false alarm and he said it was real quiet for a while after.