Who here lived the cold war?

a reply to: Vasa Croe

To all who grew up tall and proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud (to paraphrase Queen).

Queen - Hammer To Fall.

I grew up in the 2nd half of the Cold War in the UK. I was a kid in the 1970s and I became a lot more interested in Cold War politics after a personal event.

Who remembers this weird case in 1978?

The Poisonous Umbrella and the Assassination of Georgi Markov!

Well earlier in the summer of 1978 I was on a school trip to the North Wales countryside with my school class. I wish I could remember the exact location but I can't. Anyway whilst walking through some woods a group of us found a battered open suitcase containing some strange coins, a very odd looking calculator, and documents in a very strange language (which we thought was maybe Russian??). We handed it to our teacher, and later in the day the police turned up and took it away then we got back on our coach and returned home.

We never heard a word from that day on (including our class teacher). But the Georgi Markov murder occurred when we returned to school after the summer holidays. For a while we did wonder if there was a connection to it all. It might have been nothing to do with it. But it has been a niggling question left unanswered in my life that every now and again comes back to me. From then on I became fascinated by events like the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We had a whole string of "Public Information Films" in late 1970s/early 1980s Britain called "Protect and Survive"

People who remember Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 1980s hit single "Two Tribes" may recall the samples taken from this:



Once Thatcher came to power and her 'agreement' with Reagan, meaning Foreign nuclear weapons (Cruise and Pershing missiles) would be sited on Her Majesty's sovereign territory, then a protest movement began to gain ground. CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) became relevant again and "Protest and Survive" became their slogan. I think there was a genuine fear (if only in the back of our minds) that someone would really over step the mark and nuclear war would start. But I don't think it was ever like the 1950s and during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

By the mid-80s we had our own equivalent of the "Day After" called "Threads". It certainly had a strong impact. I remember lots of people talking about it in school. But I don't think we ever got to a point where we really felt there was going to be a nuclear exchange. This was one particularly harrowing scene. Bear in mind as well that we could only expect a 4 minute warning. Not enough time to even run a mile. Well unless you were Roger Bannister (it was probably past him by 1984 though!)



We'd had some mild flashpoints like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Solidarity movement in Poland a year late. But in the mid-1980s I really didn't expect things to pick up pace and take the twists they did.

Just five years later in 1989 the old Soviet Union was breaking apart and the Berlin Wall was coming down. Looking back we really missed some opportunities in the 1990s and the old NATO alliance got far too cosy and complacent. We didn't learn from the end of WWII when the Russians became the enemy (not long after being our allies). Instead we started fiddling about in the Middle East and allowing the old Warsaw Pact countries to join NATO. Pushing us right up to Russia's own doorstep.

Today is a product of the decisions taken at the end of the Cold War and beyond. Now we face new dangers. It seems there is no longer a strong public appetite for sending our military to police the world. Not since the "WMD in Iraq" fiasco. We aren't even happy with our friends and neighbours in Europe (Brexit/Scottish Independence/Nationalism resurfacing). Now we have an unpredictable President in the Whitehouse, an idiot in charge of North Korea developing nukes and of course the threat of ISIS.

May we live in interesting times.

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.

I do . In a very up close and personal in my face way

The Cold War was much , much worse.
Many times the world was truly "on the brink"
Moving out of country ? Where to ? What country would not be effected ? Every single scenario put forward by the think tanks ended in only one way.
Now , we have proxy wars , technical wars , trade wars and many other forms of warfare. Just as effective.
Nukes are fast becoming obsolete . Thank goodness.Only the bassackward countries continue now.

a reply to: Golantrevize

In the 1950's we had city-wide air raid drills about once a month. We all went to the lower levels of the school, faced the wall, and put one arm over our eyes and covered the back of our neck with the other. Later, I was part of a release team for B57 warheads. The drill for WW3 was unbuckle belt, drop drawers, and kiss your a$$ goodbye. The good news was that craters in the ocean filled right back up.

I live near to the nuclear submarine yard now, as I did then. Nothing to worry about, I'll see a flash if I'm lucky.

a reply to: starwarsisreal

Yeah...live the titor's post but stopped caring after 2004 when his prophecies started to not happen.

a reply to: Gothmog

I dont see nukes beeing obsolete at all. If it was not for a nuclear retaliation USA would nit care much about Russian threats. USA would actually obliterate Russia in a war without nukes.

This thread has illustrated for me the actual meaning of "Brinksmanship".

sheesh......

a reply to: mirageman

Wow ...pls check your inbox

I was born just a few days after the United States tested their first thermonuclear bomb.

I was learning to walk when Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Communist Party.

I was in my terrible twos when the United States launched the world's first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus. My uncle was a submariner.

I had just started first grade when NASA was formed. I was in kindergarten when Sputnik was launched and the space race began.

In second grade when Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba and Viet Nam is just starting to heat up.

In 5th grade when, John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States, we had the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Berlin Wall was built, Checkpoint Charlie began, and the Soviets detonated the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested.

I was born in the thick of it and I hope to die before the end of it.

My first memories of it were the drills at school. Hiding under our desks and then hurrying home to our parents who also participated.

I remember a couple of times being warned at school to stay indoors the next day due to nuclear testing in nearby Nevada.

We had a shelter downtown, under a city building and another in an old mine nearby.

My father often had information on building shelters on the coffee table and I remember them talking about it.

I remember being scared listening to and watching the adults talking about the Cuban missile crisis. The fear was palpable from people who had just been through WW2 and given so much.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Here's why,

a reply to: TheRedneck

Computer error is what caused part of the Alert Force going airborne after reports of a valid launch came in. The other one that I worried about were launches from someone seeing a rocket launch and mistaking it for something else. That almost happened as late as 1995, when a scientific rocket was launched from Norway. Russia was notified, but no one passed the warning on to the radar stations watching for missile launches. It flew a similar trajectory to a Trident missile, and Yeltsin activated their version of The Football and prepared to launch their missiles.

As bad as things are today, I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here losing my mind every day, because something else happens. I have no control over things happening halfway around the world, and while I'd hate to see something happen that leads to a war, sitting here freaking out over everything isn't going to do any good either.

originally posted by: Golantrevize
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

I have caught up with a lot of friends from school through FB and they all seem pretty well adjusted.

I lived through it all as a child. With a father that worked in the local U.S. Air Force base. So the question is, is today's situation scarier than living through the cold war? In a word, NO.

Ask yourself these questions,

Q: Have you received this type of letter in the mail for your family that assesses your home for fallout shelter potential?


Q: Have you been issued a Civil Defense (CD) booklet (with the president on the first page) on how to make a fallout shelter out of your basement (and do you keep a memorial of that to this day)




Q: Do you have monthly fallout (i.e. Duck & Cover) drills in school?

Well, I and many others of my generation did. We lived it daily. During Vietnam, I had a brother in the Air Force, 3 uncles deployed in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, and we watched the news each night hoping to never hear about strikes in their respective areas. As the youngest, under recruiting age, I taught myself farming, the use of available items (such as using black top from the street as fuel and the remaining roadbed as a planting area), and guerrilla tactics convinced we would be invaded and I was determined to be a resistance fighter if needed. My father also taught me how to shoot and evacuate and protect our family if it happened while he was on base.

So, have you had to go through any of this today from a single cruise missile attack on a known target that launched chemical weapons upon a civilian population half a world away?

If the answer is no then my answer stands as, no, it is not.


If no, then I can unequivocally say it is not as terrifying now as living through the cold war.

Oh, and to add, later as an adult I discovered the real reason for those seemingly senseless duck & cover drills. It was not to protect your life, but to protect your TEETH. Yes, since your teeth had a better chance of surviving a blast, your dental record would be used to identify the pile of ash as being you in the aftermath (if anyone was still around to take a census that is).

a reply to: TheRedneck

Yeah same here. I'm 63.

There is a place on Rt.2 coming into boston around Arlington/Belmont that would have a great view of the mushroom cloud over Boston/Cambridge.

That's where I would be with a lid, some buttons and a couple bottles of Mateus. (just beer now) lol.

originally posted by: Golantrevize
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

Hell no.

Compared to what we went through, this "safe spaces" BS for "words" just confuses us and we want to throttle these snowflake idiots.

It is far from over.

In South Africa the ideology is very alive.
Mainland China, North Korea.
Politically the communist Party still rules everything.

A Song from Vietnam.

a reply to: seagull


72'

Randy Newman

a reply to: Golantrevize



I was born in 1959 so missed probably the worst part of it. Don't remember the Cuban missile crisis, but do remember the constant feeling that we could just all get vaporized at a moments notice. I have to say its worse now than then. The threat feels worse and more tangible. Is that because I am older or because its really worse. Not sure.