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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin could have started World War Three in 1989 had it used troops to crush the demonstrations that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Tuesday.
Gorbachev is hailed in the West for ignoring hardliners who advised him to guarantee the Soviet Union's future by crushing a growing wave of dissent in Eastern Bloc countries which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
When asked by a reporter why he did not use force to halt the demonstrations, Gorbachev said it would have sparked a catastrophic set
Originally posted by Vitchilo
There's many instances in history that world war 3 could have started, like in 1954, in Vietnam when the US nearly used nukes on the Vietminh like it was no big deal... but fortunately, due to others events, it did not happen.
Also nukes were nearly used against China during the Korean war... and also there were british plans to nuke China if China wanted to conquer Hong Kong by force...
Originally posted by Ulala
I think Mr Gorbachev is overblowing his account of things, tbh.
Originally posted by JIMC5499
I have to disagree with the statement that NATO wouldn't have interfered because they were out gunned. The Soviets had severe problems with the reliability of their weapons systems due to a lack of spare parts and poor maintaince.
Originally posted by JIMC5499
At the time that this happened the Soviets were also moving their primary forces East to prevent their being siezed in the event of rebellion.