Response to kristinekochanski, 23 October 2012 10:49PM
"Neither the Soviets nor the US were ever going to use nuclear weapons & that remains the case now."
The Soviets very nearly fired a nuclear tipped torpedo at US Navy ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the three designated officers refused to agree to the launch. If they had done so then a full scale nuclear war might well have started.
Not Soviet or USA, but during the crisis the RAF's V-bomber force was at 15 minutes readiness to launch most of the time, armed with nuclear weapons. For a while they were at five minutes readiness, which meant ground crew standing beside every chock ready to pull them away, air crew sitting in their seats, auxiliary power unit ready to start all engines if they had gone to two minutes readiness. A relative was sitting in the pilot's seat of one of them.
US planes were at 15 minutes readiness or in the air. The short range missiles in Turkey, Italy and England were ready for launch, as were the long range missiles in the USA.
The Soviets showed remarkable restraint in the face of all this. With a true sense of diplomacy they did not react at all.
They were all very clear during the Cold War that they would use nuclear weapons, deterrence does not work if everyone agrees that it is just pretend.
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BURKS PROFILE IS CHOCABLOC WITH PILFERINGS OF MY POETRY THE EMPTY WIND BAG DOESNT HAVE TWO FEELIGNS TO RUB TOGETERH
