Who here lived the cold war?

Were we scared? IDK... the folks around me were certainly CONCERNED, but not so much scared. Duck and cover, See a flash, fall down and cover your head. Lots of folks had Geiger counters and other types of equipment with plans about "Where to go if the balloon goes up." But it seemed to be more of just a fact of life than the knee jerk reactions people are addicted to now. I grew up in an area that sprouted silos like sagebrush so there were constant reminders of the commonality of world-ending weapons. That may have had an effect on our outlook.

I served in the Navy in the early 80s. 2nd and 6th fleet mostly. Lots of North Atlantic and Med cruises, with prep training at Gitmo. Soviet vessels were a frequent sight, and on a seven month cruise we got to recognize some of the usuals at a glance. Things were pretty tense in the fleet then. Especially when cruising in the "Bear's Backyard". When I first joined, training standards were just becoming an issue after the late 70's "No Sweat, Man" attitude. By 1983 standards were pretty high with several daily drills of one type or another. Even when we were in home port. I was on a Med cruise in 1983. and those of us who read the morning radio traffic at the start of each watch had very long faces indeed. Not a fun time to in the know.

Still, considering everything, I feel there was much more of substance to be worried about at that time with mostly calm concern versus not much of substance at this time but wild swings of panic for little reason. Just my personal opinion and observation.

I can't say I've ever felt in direct danger like some who've posted real 60s 70s memories, but the memories are still valid.

What I got living through the 80s in England is a foreboding sense of fatality which crept into everday life. Primary school had us watch the downright sinister Threads movie which I'll never shake from my psyche, along with When The Wind Blows and reading Z for Zacharia. Trips to the local shelter and air raid siren tests were necessary as we lived a stones throw from RAF/USAF Croughton and Upper Heyford. The screams of the F-111s overhead all day everyday, which I now strangely miss, reminded you that we'd be the first UK target of any attack due to the communication links from Croughton.

Not far away is the somewhat secretive MOD base of Kineton which stores underground (or did) the largest cache of weapons in Europe placed directly under the blood soaked fields of the English Civil War. I actually miss the US presence around my old town nestled in leafy countryside- the families that settled here alongside us Brits to protect 'The West' and the machinery that came with them. B52s, Hercules, AWACS, even the odd Nighthawk flew over and around us. We're still a huge target due to Prism but that fear left a long time ago.

Mother Russia is our companion up here in the AK.

During the 80s there were incursions into AK air space. F-16s scrambled to turn around the bomber and escort craft was practically a weekly occurrence.

It was not really scary. But you cue off your parents (i.e., they get scared) that is when you paid attention.

As I grew up, the feeling became a kind of "gallows humor" edge. So we could sing along with punk rock songs citing Dachau or dance to "Party at ground zero." In the late 90s, Russians started showing up here in town to attend college. Then you notice, "they're just like us" and we even have a couple words the same (like some place names).

Then it hits you. It is the institution, stupid! The MIC, the man, the Government, TPTB, etc. Not Oksana Baiul. Your mind kind of learns to separate individuals from institutions.

November 1989, they're dancing on the Berlin Wall tonight,
I feel the flow of history but have no part

New Model Army - Prison

For a short time in 1984, I was a Missile Launch Officer stationed at Minot AFB in North Dakota.

With my hand literally on the key, it occurred to me that nuclear war was very unlikely, since there was really no money in it for anybody, including the Soviets.

The biggest nuclear threat comes from smaller countries, including those run by religious zealots, getting their hands on either an old nuke or some highly radioactive material to produce a "dirty bomb." These people might believe they have nothing to lose, or that "God" thinks they should crush all the infidels.

Overall, though, the notion of nuclear war seems kind of far-fetched at the moment compared to the early 60s.

I was a kid but I remember in school they put a film on called when the wind blows and that made me more scared to survive a nuclear bomb,a reply to: Golantrevize

originally posted by: Golantrevize
I would really like to know from older members who experienced the cold war from a day to day basis.

Would you compare the current events and the fear of a nuclear war to that in the peak of the cold war?

How was it living fearing the nukes? Was it all you talked about at work? Did you think of moving out of the states? Please share

I was a kid and barely remember the fall of the wall. Looking for people who were adults during the cold war.

Same here... I was 12 when it ended and don't remember much.

a reply to: Golantrevize

As messed up as it may have sounded, we should always be prepared... I always think about what I would do if a nuclear war came to us, or if an EMP fried the power grid, I even think about what move I'll make if I'm driving and the car coming towards me veers into my lane or if a bomb goes off/shooter comes in shooting at the store I'm in... I always catch myself thinking about those things and making my next move.

a reply to: Golantrevize

It was way worse and way scarier. I'm not really scared or afraid of Nuclear war right now. In the early 80s that was a real fear. The Russians were definitely our enemy and we knew it. Today...not so much. It's totally different. There were shows and plot lines about it on almost every TV show in some way or another. NOt really like that today.

a reply to: darknewt

Me too (very underrated film)

Just for the record...that movie "The Day After" was filmed here. Here in my stomping grounds. Teikiatsu mentioned the part that was filmed in midtown KC, but in Lawrence there was also an extended shoot........

And also, just because we're discussing it and I'm chiming in here, disclosure: I have never seen it. It always seemed like a "B" movie to me. But you all who saw it when you were kids.....holy wow!!! It freaked you all out.

Interesting.

I'm only 43, but when I was young, we genuinely feared an all-out nuclear war. It was just something that you knew could happen at any time and which you accepted as part of your daily existence. Even books for young adults dealt with the theme, even the aftermath. It is not something I want to see come back.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

That TV show is genuinely and appropriately credited with causing a massive shift of opinion in America. It scared the hell out of us all. Seriously.

I grew up in USSR.

I've seen that USA movie "The day after" many people here mentioning.
I also seen at that time British movie ( don't remember the name)
British was scarier btw.

Also Soviet movie youtu.be...

What I think now. I wish we nuke USA lol.
Americans and their way of life is too evil and there will be no other cure.

I was listening to Zappa but couldn't think it is so real then.
youtu.be...

Now I'm wiser, I prefer going back to neolithic lol

I was living in Spain in the 80s, so never experienced what kids felt in the U.S. Even though things seem serious with regards to Syria and Russia, there is more of a threat from North Korea which has a lunatic in charge and is more than willing to use their nukes.

originally posted by: Golantrevize
I would really like to know from older members who experienced the cold war from a day to day basis.

Would you compare the current events and the fear of a nuclear war to that in the peak of the cold war?

How was it living fearing the nukes? Was it all you talked about at work? Did you think of moving out of the states? Please share

I was a kid and barely remember the fall of the wall. Looking for people who were adults during the cold war.

Today's Sabre Rattling is worse... Today's leaders only have Korea or modern indirect proxy/ small scale conflicts as a point of reference or pause to think on.

The leaders from the cold war had WW2 horrors for reasons to reflect and pause.... 50 years in I'm waiting for actual peace time but sadly those opportunities are now numbered 13/16 years and counting.

a reply to: Golantrevize

I was a teenager and youg adult in those times. In the 1970's i went on a bus trip behind the iron curtain.

I also watched innumerable so called expose'a, about the big bad commie reds that were biggest threat to the entire world, solar system and the known universe.

Let me make this very clear, yes it was from the little I saw behind the iron curtain a police state, "Tour guides" "floor Monitors" in hotels etc would refuse to talk politics. Yes, its true that only about 1 person in every 500 smiled.

What characterised the places behind the iron curtain that I saw was poverty, and more poverty. I gained a very good insight into what a war time economy looked like waling down the street.

it was not uncommon to multistory blocks of flats 20-30 stories high with brown stains all down the side of the building because the sewerage pipes, which were on the outside of the buildings, had leaked or broken.

Russia had no intention of taking over any western country because it was event they just did not have the money and the economic power to do so. They were afraid, in fact very afraid of the west.

What you must understand here, is that everything the west accused the USSR of in terms of how they treated their people, I see being implemented in my country today, and do go getting or ideological about whose fault it is because you need to understand one single thing. Tyranny is tyranny no matter which faction of govt is in power.

Both factions are simply the two wings of the same bird-of-prey. I've been watching it happen for the last 30-40 years.

a reply to: Azureblue
At some point in the Sixties, a couple of years before the events of 1968, a party from our school went to visit Czechoslovakia. I wasn't on the trip, but our French teacher was. He reported to our class later that someone had come up to a member of the party and remarked "I am a Czech- and ashamed of it". He was astonished that someone should volunteer such a dangerous statement.

I was born in 1957. I was an elementary school child during the 1960s and we had bomb drills along with our regular fire drills.
Not that crouching down in a hallway and putting your hands over your head would help at all but it was something to do I guess.
The threat was just there. In the background.
We went about life mostly by not thinking about it but in all honesty it's just been a fact of life for me. It's always been there like the moon and Sun.
There were people who built bomb shelters but it never became a big thing. Mostly due to expense but also because the odds of surviving a nuclear attack even in a shelter were very slim.
We all live in this world still today.
There was a major arms reduction in the eighties but pfft... so we can only destroy the world three times over instead of ten.
All of you live the same world we did. The cold war never ended. The nukes are out there and there's no surviving if they are used.
You live and love and bring your children into the world on the lone hope that they won't be...

a reply to: MOMof3

I was pretty young during the Cuban missile crisis and really didn't understand it until I looked back at it when I was older.
I do remember people being tense and whispers the grown ups silenced when children came near.
I was in bed before my parents turned on the news. 7PM back then. I had no interest in the news paper except the comics my daddy read to me or the grocery ads and recipes my mom cut out with my help.
By the time I became interested in page one Kennedy was dead and the Vietnam war was in the headlines.
By then we were actively fighting the advancement of communism around the world as opposed to within our own citizenry with the McCarthyism.
I never saw the hard campaign of the fifties but here's a handful of propaganda put out for Americans.

www.bing.com...

Born in the early 70's there were many times as a kid in the 80's that I would lie awake at night and wonder if the Russians were going to nuke us at night.
I watched the "Day After" and also another film at the time called "Special Bulletin" which was just as scary.
I read post apocalyptic novels and tried to figure out how we would survive the mutants.
Fun times