20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War

This is an fascinating read - it is amazing how close we have coming to annihilation in the last 60 years.

The following paragraph literally made me feel ill:

There is no way of telling what the actual level of risk was in these mishaps but if the chance of disaster in every one of the 20 incidents had been only 1 in 100, it is mathematical fact that the chance of surviving al 20 would have been 82%, i.e. about the same as the chance of surviving a single pull of the trigger at Russian roulette played with a 6 shooter. With a similar series of mishaps on the Soviet side: another pull of the trigger. If the risk in some of the events had been as high as 1 in 10, then the chance of surviving just seven such events would have been less than 50:50.

I spent some time educating myself while browsing this site - in fact seeing as it is almost Halloween, the horror I felt seems appropriate.

Link to Source

6) October 25, 1962- Cuban Missile Crisis: Intruder in Duluth

At around midnight on October 25, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence. He shot at it, and activated the "sabotage alarm." This automatically set off sabotage alarms at all bases in the area. At Volk Field, Wisconsin, the alarm was wrongly wired, and the Klaxon sounded which ordered nuclear armed F-106A interceptors to take off. The pilots knew there would be no practice alert drills while DEFCON 3 was in force, and they believed World War III had started.

Immediate communication with Duluth showed there was an error. By this time aircraft were starting down the runway. A car raced from command center and successfully signaled the aircraft to stop. The original intruder was a bear.

(Op Link)

Good Lord... It's just a miracle the world survived that period of history....to the extent it's actually behind us.

Oh, the irony for Mr Murphy to see from far above. World War III WOULD have started because of 'The Bear' attacking U.S. Nuclear Forces. I guess you really can't make this stuff up... wow.

Makes you think it's just a matter of time before a "mistake" is made...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Isn't Iran considered the bear?

2nd

There was a bad computer chip in the 80s that caused us to launch our alert EC-135 with the battle staff onboard. The pilot was a friend of ours, and he said making that turn at the end of the runway was thehardest thing he ever did, because they didn't know if they would have a base to come back to.

reply to post by mytheroy


Bear = Russia
Eagle = US

Thank goodness South Africa no longer has nuclear weapons - I can only imagine what would happen. When the army embarks on strike again they would probably use them as Collective Bargaining tools.

Hi history fans.

To me, they missed one of the most important one ! ! !:

www.pbs.org...

This is the story of how one man pushed the world to the brink of destruction. . .
. . .and how another saved us all from nuclear apocalypse.

www.thirteen.org...

For the first time in life a commander of a submarine had a nuclear weapon and had
the authority to fire the missile at his command.”

! ! ! ! THAT is one close call, because HE ORDERED to SHOOT THE weapon ! ! ! ! !

Blue skies.

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reply to post by C-JEAN


We've been closer. Russia gave the order and were actually starting a countdown to launch when a missile commander chose to wait two minutes for better data.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by mytheroy

 

Bear = Russia
Eagle = US

Thanks Wrabbit2000, Not to hip on on country animal names.

reply to post by mytheroy


I thought you might find this interesting.... Call it the first political campaign commercial that really sticks out in my mind, growing up. I was about 11 when this came out but it was signature to the campaign and people's fears at the time. ..anyway... To give some actual basis beyond movie reference for Russia being the "Bear" in symbol.

Eastern Mediterranean event
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Coordinates: 34°N 21°E

The Eastern Mediterranean Event was a high-energy aerial explosion over the Mediterranean Sea, around 34°N 21°E (between Libya and Crete, Greece) on June 6, 2002.[1] This explosion, similar in power to a small atomic bomb, has been related to an asteroid undetected while approaching the Earth. The object disintegrated and no part was recovered. Since it did not reach the surface and it exploded over the sea, no crater was formed.

The event occurred during the 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff, and there were concerns by General Simon Worden of the US Air Force that a similar explosion could have sparked a nuclear war between the two countries, had it exploded over Pakistan or India, which would have devastated both regions, causing deaths numbering over 10 million.

Source

A meteor exploding over a city could be taken as a nuclear bomb and cause WWIII.
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reply to post by deltaalphanovember


Didn't realize how many little "blips" there were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Any of those could have done us all in........ Nice find.

reply to post by pavil


There is also some credence given to the long-standing rumour that South Africa nearly used the nuclear option after the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale:

Failing to take Cuito Cuanavale with over 9,000 soldiers even after announcing to the world that Cuito Cuanavale had fallen; losing its superiority in the air; and faced with mutinies from the black troops of the pressed ganged battalions, the operational command of the SADF broke down and President P.W. Botha had to fly to the war zone inside Angola. Botha, it was later revealed had flown in to intervene in a dispute among the South African military high command on whether the apartheid army should use tactical nuclear weapons. Botha decided against the use of nuclear weapons because at that time apartheid South Africa was a pariah state.

PDF Document

ATS Thread

I'm surprised nobody mentioned "Able Archer 83". The Soviets actually thought we were at DEFCON 1 and were getting ready to launch.

reply to post by anton74


Thanks Anton, do you have a link?

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


I'm not Anton, but here are a few:

CIA< br />
www.straightdope.com...

Another one

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thank you Mr Beeblebrox

Originally posted by anton74
I'm surprised nobody mentioned "Able Archer 83". The Soviets actually thought we were at DEFCON 1 and were getting ready to launch.

The MilitaryChannel played a documentary on this. Totally scary!! Had no idea we came so close to a nuclear strike over a military exercise.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I just read the article, interesting. It seems Mr Reagan made some good calls. He made mistakes too, but in my mind, he was the last really good US President (I don't care about the Republican versus Democrat debate and don't wish to raise that here - I am talking about statesmanship and policy-making on a global scale).