Who here lived the cold war?

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.

My first memories of it were in the mid-80s when I was in Elementary and Junior High. It hit me especially hard when "The Day After" came out. Bonus points because I lived in Kansas City where the TV movie was set. We had the fear spoon-fed to us by teachers who hated Reagan.

I remember crying late at night, waiting for the nukes to go off.

I'd say I was more scared then, but I am still concerned that there could be a limited exchange or radicals transporting nukes across ground instead of rockets, or dirty bombs with nuclear fallout blowing in the wind.

It was not all I talked about with my friends. My family did not think about moving.

As for fear of dying to a nuke, I'd say I'm just as concerned about the Yellowstone Super Volcano or an Asteroid.

a reply to: Golantrevize

Everyone was building bomb shelters, who had the money, fallout shelter signs downtown, drills hiding under desks. I was a kid but I remember thinking about dying from a bomb at night. The worst was the Cuban crisis. Even kids knew we were in danger.

a reply to: Golantrevize

CD Duck and Cover Drills in Grade School , President Eisenhower and later on President Kennedy had Strategic Air Force Nuclear Capable Bombers in Flight 24/7 , On Television , Constant News of Russian Aggression against it's Satellite States , The Cuban Missile Crisis Nearly brought the World to a Nuclear War , East German Terrorists Attacks caused Havoc around the World . All through these Decades , U.S. Military Technology kept the Peace through it's Superiority to any other Nation on Earth including the Soviet Union and Red China . Wars in Korea , and Vietnam confronted the Aggressive Spread of Communism in Asia . At Home , Americans Felt SAFE knowing our Federal Government and Military would Confront Any Threats to Democracies Around the World . A Scaring Time for Most of Us , but we got on with our Lives in Peace .

a reply to: Golantrevize

I grew up during the cold war with bomb drills at school -- '60s and '70s -- and we had to crawl under our desks... but we had to do the same thing for earthquake drills... and there were also the fire drills where we had to line up in an orderly fashion and go outside. So we were used to lots of drills for this or that or the other thing. Earthquakes were more real to me than any bomb scare. As a young adult in the late '70s, I was more concerned about... wait for it... the terrorists hijacking planes and ships and taking hostages than I was worried about the Russians. Like the earthquakes, the terrorists were far more real.

I was too young to remember the Bay of Pigs fiasco, but from what I remember, the adults around me felt like that was "a close one." But the fear and worry were more heightened to that specific event, but not to the cold war in general.

What I hear today isn't the same. Back in the day, it was more an attitude of reasonable precautions for reasonable risks... today I hear a lot of hype, fear mongering, gnashing of teeth, but nothing practical about it.

That's how I remember it/see it for what it's worth.

a reply to: Golantrevize

I remember it.

I remember drills in school, where we had to hide under our desks. I also remember thinking, "how is this desk going to help me?"

As an adult, I remember talking with friends about it. I remember the doomsday clock (do they still have that?)

The biggest difference I see between now and then is, we weren't scared nearly as bad as folks are today. We took it in stride. I remember a guy asking me what I planned to do if they announced the nukes from Russia were en route.

"We should have at least an hour's notice, so I'm going to get in my car and drive as hard as I can towards [the military base close to here]. As soon as I hear the whistle of missiles overhead, I'm going to stop the car, get out, and get to see a mushroom cloud up close before I'm vaporized."

And I was serious.

What it comes down to, IMO, is that we're all going to die, and none of us really knows when or how. I refuse to be afraid. I'm fully planning on going about my day Monday just like none of this Syria stuff is happening. I have a feeling my friends, about my age, will do the same. But the younger generation... they'll probably wind up having a heart attack or nervous breakdown before anything can be launched, all the while screaming that I'm acting crazy.

Not too sure if I would waste the gas this time... I'm old and probably wouldn't get to see the purty cloud. Might just drink a beer in my recliner instead...

TheRedneck

I was 10 with the Cuban missile crisis. We would listen, likely to Walter Cronkite, maybe even George Putnam. There was a nervous fear in the air, war just around the corner. It was brief but fearful Oct 16, 1962
to Oct 28, 1962, 12 days of Atomic bomb fear.

a reply to: Golantrevize

Yes, I recall the bomb shelters and under the desk drills. Radio and TV all in with threats. McCarthy witch hunt.
We were limited to MSM. With Vietnam people began waking up especially after the death of JFK but don't think we ever questioned the evil Russia or China.

Thing is Russia is no longer communist, but they are nationalist and to my eyes the only threat the gov can claim is they support people who are nationalist and reject globalism.

a reply to: Golantrevize

I was like Teikiatsu -- force fed the Cold War fear all through school like everyone else, but my parents told me stories about having to live through the Cuban Missile Crisis and about how much worse that was in terms of pucker factor.

My mom was in school then like I was during the Cold War.

So, relatively speaking ... I figured if mom wasn't freaked, there wasn't much reason for me to be freaked. It helped maintain perspective, but you know ... for us Cold War kids, the nukes were our Global Warming. We worried about fallout like today's kids cry about drowning polar bears.

a reply to: Teikiatsu

That movie was terrifying!

I don't think that I really lived in fear of such things when I was a child though. Wars and such things seemed far away, and my parents never talked about things like that around us. We also did not watch much TV.

The first time I remember being afraid of anything nuclear was the melt-down at Three Mile Island. We had a family meeting where I listened as the adults made plans regarding which roads to take and where we would meet if we had to bug out. And I went home and packed a suitcase because I was sure that we were going to have to run for it. Even though I was a teenager, I was terrified.

I do remember the end of the Cold War though. I knew a guy from Germany who was working at the same place I did at the time. I asked him what he thought the day after the news of the fall of the wall. He told me it would never happen. I told him... but it DID happen. He did not believe me. I told him it was on the news. He told me I should not believe the news, they lie, and that the Berlin Wall would never come down.

I grew up in the latter part of the cold war.

One day it hit me that where I was living, was no less than ground zero for at least 3 nuclear strikes. Now if there is no where to go or run, no shelter that would protect one from such, you just live like it could happen. There was the one day when the Challenger accident, and the Principle did not let us know until the last part, and many students were already planning, me as well, what to do with the last minutes of our lives.

a reply to: MOMof3

I do remember the bomb shelter signs. There was a legal, stocked bomb shelter in the basement of the place I worked. It was creepy down there. I would not have wanted to stay down there for a long period!

a reply to: Golantrevize

Thank you for all the testimonies so far guys. Most of you really were fed this # as young kids , quite scary stuff for a young mind searching for its own place in this messed up world.

a reply to: Golantrevize

I wasnt an adult at the time but i recall in elementary and middle school having to do drills in class in case of the war and getting under our desks.

So i would say we are not at that level yet. Im more affraid of a gun shooting at my sons school and a race war over a nuclear threat.

a reply to: Golantrevize

i for a 3 yr period of time slept 50 and 10 feet from nukes. i even use lean on them from time to time the navy guys use to get pissed about that, but they would do the same thing. was part of my job.

never bothered any of us, if it happened it happened. didn't want it to but we had no way of controlling who did what. we just did our job as if it was normal thing.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

You worked that close to nuclear weapons??! Is it classified or can you tell us what you did there and where?

a reply to: Golantrevize

Like everyone else, so I won't repeat.

Where we lived was a "target" so we joked about living at ground zero.

Took it in stride, went about our business and didn't worry about it. It wasn't like we could do anything about it anyway.

a reply to: DBCowboy

I wonder today if there would be a main target or just every city would get hit.

a reply to: Golantrevize

The McCarthyism coming from the Dem's is something on par, but not the MAD racket.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I think most kids who made it to here on this day commenting on ATS are the stronger ones, a ton of kids must have been traumatized for life from watching this kinda stuff so young