Cuban missile Crisis How Close to nuclear annihilation???

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Utrigita
So how close was we actually I believe we where pretty close.

Burnt Pancakes
I dont understand how.

Cuba launches a missle, blows up one major City. America fires missles, destroys all of Cuba.

no expression

Templares
IIRC the Russians in Cuba secretly have tactical nukes at their disposal to compensate for their lack of manpower. Had Kennedy authorized an amphibious invasion of Cuba, the Russians would have use it to level the playing field. Once thats done, ICBM's and SLBM's would start raining from both sides.

Utrigita
but could it come to that???

Fishy
An attack on Russian troops and weapons in Cuba along with one it's biggest allies could easily be seen as an attack on Russia it self.

If not by the Russians then by the Americans. If a war would break out between Cuba and the US it's not that hard to imagine that Russia would get involved, the only way for a war between NATO and Russia to end is nuclear...

Tangible God
Wow, MAD is a wonderful theory. No losers or winners.

S_W_LeGenD
Originally posted by Utrigita
but could it come to that???
Yes! It would!

The Soviet Union started deploying its nuclear weapons and other strategic military arsenal in Cuba in 1962 and these weapons posed a major threat to the United States.

The Soviet Union made this strategic move for following reasons:

A) Most of the Soviet Missiles could not directly reach US Mainland but US Missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. So a strategic nuclear arsenal deployment in Cuba would provide a real deterrent against a potential US attack on Soviet Union.
B) To counter the move of deployment of strategic military arsenal by United States in Turkey, that posed a direct threat to Soviet Union.
C) Cuba was a strategic ally of Soviet Union and the threat of its invasion by US military forces existed, so Soviet Union decided to boost its defensive abilities.

And chances of declaration of war became very high between both the Super-powers due to the following reasons:

A) Kennedy outright declared that any Missile launched from Cuba on any nation would be considered to be an attack on US itself.
B) A US Spy Plane was shot down in Cuba during a reconnaissance mission to discover more Soviet Military Bases in Cuba.
C) The threat of invasion of Cuba by US, in which Soviet military bases would be targeted. Both the Cuban and US military forces were prepared for war.
D) The decision to impose a very strong quarantine around the Cuba by US Naval forces to prevent Russian military supplies to reach Cuba. Russians decided to send a naval fleet to counter this quarantine.
E) Soviet and US Strategic Bombers armed with Nuclear weapons were already in the air to strike.

The situation had become so grave that a Soviet General remarked: "Nuclear catastrophe was hanging by a thread ... and we weren't counting days or hours, but minutes."

Utrigita
Know all about it wink got a A+ for it, just wanted to know what you guys thought big grin

Penelope
The Cuban Missile crisis, as a Whole, could have ended up being the end of Life on Earth.

First off, the island of Cuba itself, would have been the FIRST country, to get Wiped off of the face of the Earth. And that is a fact that no person can deny.

Fishy
Originally posted by Penelope
The Cuban Missile crisis, as a Whole, could have ended up being the end of Life on Earth.

First off, the island of Cuba itself, would have been the FIRST country, to get Wiped off of the face of the Earth. And that is a fact that no person can deny.

Sure it is, if the US would have decided to attack they would have made damn sure that their nuclear weapons would have hit Russia at the same time as Cuba. Unless the Russians could know that those weapons were coming in which case you are right and Cuba would have been hit first but the nukes towards Russia would already be on their way.

Captain REX
Thankfully "the other guy blinked," right? wink

Cuba would have been gone, no doubting that.

Koenig
It was all bluff.

Penelope
Both nations also "secretly" invaded each others airspace constantly. So you can only imagine what those aircrafts could have been able to "deploy" at that given moment.

Spidervlad
Really, sometimes you just have to think of all the nucler weapons.

With a push of a button by any nation could lead to the end of life on earth...

The only way to stop this is if some sort of "Anti Nucleur Missile Shield Grid" was created. That would stop people form using the Nucleur Missiles as they would be useless if most countries had such a shield grid.

lil bitchiness
Originally posted by Burnt Pancakes
I dont understand how.

Cuba launches a missle, blows up one major City. America fires missles, destroys all of Cuba.

no expression
Those weren't Cuban missiles, but Russian. Also situatied in Turkey.

Utrigita
there was american missiles stationed in Turkey Jupiter missiles to be precise.

Templares
Originally posted by Spidervlad
Really, sometimes you just have to think of all the nucler weapons.

With a push of a button by any nation could lead to the end of life on earth...

The only way to stop this is if some sort of "Anti Nucleur Missile Shield Grid" was created. That would stop people form using the Nucleur Missiles as they would be useless if most countries had such a shield grid.

I believe the Soviets have an Anti-Ballistic missile system set up over Moscow . . . . but was rendered obsolete by multiple entry warheads.

History Buff
I think the fact that we had a president that was able to understand the seriousness of the situation made all the difference. JFK was pacifist who believed war was wrong and that a minor occurance on an obscure island in the Cariibean could lead to the end of mankind. Thank god Bush wasn't president or the Earth would be nothing more than cinder of ash with roaches scowerring for food.

Crosshair
Originally posted by Penelope
First off, the island of Cuba itself, would have been the FIRST country, to get Wiped off of the face of the Earth. And that is a fact that no person can deny.

Yeah, no doubt. Then the USSR would probably be mostly destroyed before America was obliterated. Then all hell would break loose and the USSR would destroy every country that would not bow down just because they're bad-asses like that.

Crosshair
Originally posted by History Buff
Thank god Bush wasn't president or the Earth would be nothing more than cinder of ash with roaches scowerring for food.



hysterical hysterical hysterical

Zahara
I also had a giggle at that comment. America is a world power, even more powerful that USSR, in my opinion. It's scary thinking you could be wiped out just like that especially if you live in a country where there is pathetic defense.

Fishy
Originally posted by Zahara
I also had a giggle at that comment. America is a world power, even more powerful that USSR, in my opinion. It's scary thinking you could be wiped out just like that especially if you live in a country where there is pathetic defense.

It is at this moment, back during the cold war is was hard to say which one was more powerful, at most times the US I believe, but that's completely irrelevant, because it honestly didn't matter who had the larger or more powerful military, the only thing that mattered if a war between those two would have broken out (and still matters today) is who would fire the first nuke.

Mr Parker
Good thing kennedy was president back then because if DICK NIXON was he would have gotten us into a war.He himself said he would have gone in and that would have gotten us into a war and we would probably not be here right now.Thank god we had the bay of pigs dissaster before the cuban missle crisis because after that happened,kennedy stopped listening to his military advisors and started listening to what his aides told him instead and that was the key to avoiding the missle crisis was listening to what Bobby kennedy told him and his top aides as well.

Utrigita
Originally posted by Fishy
It is at this moment, back during the cold war is was hard to say which one was more powerful, at most times the US I believe, but that's completely irrelevant, because it honestly didn't matter who had the larger or more powerful military, the only thing that mattered if a war between those two would have broken out (and still matters today) is who would fire the first nuke.

Throughout the entire cold war it was US that had the upper hand in nuclear power.

http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datainx.asp

shows quiet well the difference in nuclear power.

michaelangelo4
REALLY close cause of iraque

michaelangelo4
tas why i hate muslims

michaelangelo4
sorry my spelling., i am only 13 and dumb a bit

Utrigita
just got banned tsk tsk

Fishy
Originally posted by Utrigita
Throughout the entire cold war it was US that had the upper hand in nuclear power.

http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datainx.asp

shows quiet well the difference in nuclear power.

Like I said it's still quite irrelevant, who cares who has the most nukes. Both can blow up the entire world. Anything beyond that is just showing off.

Templares
Originally posted by Utrigita
Throughout the entire cold war it was US that had the upper hand in nuclear power.

http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datainx.asp

shows quiet well the difference in nuclear power.

I dont know if i remember it correctly but the main reason that we had to have numeric warhead superiority over the Soviets is because of the existence the Soviet Anti ballistic missile shield (which covers only the Moscow area). IIRC, the Pentagon had to allocate 16 ICBM's just to hit a single radio satellite dish. Thats a lot of waste.

Of course the ABM was made obsolete by multiple entry warheads (dont know the correct term for it), but the Russians also used that technology against us. They achieve nuclear parity with us somewhere in the 70's. All this and they still maintain the largest standing army in the world, 4 million strong (twice the size of the Chinese army), and equipped with modern armaments on par of our own (during the Cold war anyway).

Utrigita
Originally posted by Fishy
Like I said it's still quite irrelevant, who cares who has the most nukes. Both can blow up the entire world. Anything beyond that is just showing off.

Well during the cold war the US for one cared about who had the most nukes, els the missile gab that was a present thought in the american military until 1959 wouldn't have played such a important role. And it was first later that they could at 1962 the world would probably survive, not many people and animals but the world would, today different scenario.

Utrigita
Originally posted by Templares
I dont know if i remember it correctly but the main reason that we had to have numeric warhead superiority over the Soviets is because of the existence the Soviet Anti ballistic missile shield (which covers only the Moscow area). IIRC, the Pentagon had to allocate 16 ICBM's just to hit a single radio satellite dish. Thats a lot of waste.

Of course the ABM was made obsolete by multiple entry warheads (dont know the correct term for it), but the Russians also used that technology against us. They achieve nuclear parity with us somewhere in the 70's. All this and they still maintain the largest standing army in the world, 4 million strong (twice the size of the Chinese army), and equipped with modern armaments on par of our own (during the Cold war anyway).

correct but the most of the things you are mentioned happened so far as I know after 1962.

They only achieved more Missiles then US because of US stopping there construction of A-bombes.

Faceman
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Quiero Mota
Originally posted by Utrigita
So how close was we actually I believe we where pretty close.

Not as close as The History Channel makes it out to be. The Cold War/Red Scare was massive fearmongering and mostly shit-talk and mad-dogging between the US and USSR.

Utrigita
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
Not as close as The History Channel makes it out to be. The Cold War/Red Scare was massive fearmongering and mostly shit-talk and mad-dogging between the US and USSR.

Haven't seen the show how close do they say the US and USSR was???

IHateCaesar
Wow

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