Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

[Victoria O'Keefe]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith

How would history have remembered her if a NATO-Warsaw Pact version of World War III had broken out in the 80s?

[zabadak]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

There was a nuclear war in the 80s? I missed it???

[marc]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Probably not remembered at all. It would not have been a limited nuclear war, it would have escalated.

[zabadak]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Limited to where? Essex?

[I. R. Fincham]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

If nucleare war broke out, there wouldn't be many people left to remember her at all.

[Twocky61]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

MAD stopped all nuclear war. Mutually Assured Destruction. We each know if we launch the other side will pick up the launch by satellite detection & thus will launch theirs. It is a no-win situation as shown in the movie War Games

[marc]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Limited to where? Essex?

A limited nuclear war is where only one or two missiles are fired by each opposing sides, IE. NATO and Warsaw Pact. No more are fired, regardless of the destruction caused. The next step would be all out nuclear war. Most , if not all warheads used. There was, and still is, a hotline between the White House and the Kremlin. This would have been used in the event of any warhead being used. Since the 1950s, we came very close to war. The Cuban Missile Crises being the most well known. The blockade of west Berlin being another. During this blockade, western planes actually flew over East German territory. Fortunately, none were shot down. There were also smaller incidents, planes mistakenly flying into Eastern/Western territory. During Operation Crusader, a big NATO exercise in the early 1980s, Russia actually thought NATO was going to invade the Warsaw Pact area, they were actually getting ready for war. They only stepped down when the exercise ended. It would only have taken ONE mistake to spark something off.

[Twocky61]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

A limited nuclear war is where only one or two missiles are fired by each opposing sides, IE. NATO and Warsaw Pact. No more are fired, regardless of the destruction caused. The next step would be all out nuclear war. Most , if not all warheads used. There was, and still is, a hotline between the White House and the Kremlin. This would have been used in the event of any warhead being used. Since the 1950s, we came very close to war. The Cuban Missile Crises being the most well known. The blockade of west Berlin being another. During this blockade, western planes actually flew over East German territory. Fortunately, none were shot down. There were also smaller incidents, planes mistakenly flying into Eastern/Western territory. During Operation Crusader, a big NATO exercise in the early 1980s, Russia actually thought NATO was going to invade the Warsaw Pact area, they were actually getting ready for war. They only stepped down when the exercise ended. It would only have taken ONE mistake to spark something off.

I read about that; can't remember where

[marc]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Sorry, think I made a mistake!!! It may have been called Exercise Crusader. Operation Crusader happened during WW2.

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Able Archer, wasn't it.

We are also lucky that Lt. Petrov didn't listen to his computers.

[Richard1978]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Able Archer, wasn't it.

We are also lucky that Lt. Petrov didn't listen to his computers.

Yes I've heard that was like "War Games" in real life for the Soviets.

[staffslad]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

In the book 'The Third World War' by General Sir John Hackett, there is a limited nuclear exchange between Nato and Warsaw Pact. Birmingham and an Eastern Bloc city--can't remember which--are destroyed.

War planners also worked scenarios where nuclear exchanges were limited to a theatre of war, usually Europe, in which significant amounts of nuclear strikes by weapons like cruise missiles, Pershing and SS20 occur but the two, as then, superpowers escape unscathed (in the sense that no detonations occur on US and Russian territory), retaining their strategic arsenals intact to ensure MAD. I don't know if it is true but I read years ago that those war games where limited or theatre nuclear exchanges were envisaged always ended in strategic exchanges.

[staffslad]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

That Eastern Bloc city may have been Kiev, part of the then Soviet Union but not Russian territory.

[marc]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

In the book 'The Third World War' by General Sir John Hackett, there is a limited nuclear exchange between Nato and Warsaw Pact. Birmingham and an Eastern Bloc city--can't remember which--are destroyed.

I read this book, soon after it was published. There is a nuclear exchange destroying two cities. A cease fire is called afterwards. Both cities are never rebuilt. They are known afterwards has The Cities of Peace.

There is an alternative ending to this book where the Soviets win. The British economy is then restructured an then run very similar to the communist way.

[staffslad]

Re: Nuclear War in the 80s - how would history have remembered Samantha Smith?

Hi Mark...was the alternate ending where the WP wins included as an appendix? There was a later book by Hackett called 'The Third World War: the Untold Story'.