Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

Post by sah88 » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 6:03 PM UTC

iolsantr wrote: post #126

Houshalter wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ohio is right in the middle-ish of the country and would likely be affected by fallout (as would almost everywhere.) If you don't have a few inches of dirt or concrete between you and the fallout for a few days, your odds are not good.

I've no idea who made this map: http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1376/37/1376372253480.... , but it looks like people who live in or near Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus or Cleveland would have signifcant concerns about direct nuclear strikes. Ohio is historically a major manufacturing center in the US. And Wright Patterson AFB is a major logistal and administration center of the Air Force.

Post by bdunbar » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 6:40 PM UTC

stan_rogers wrote: post #61

bane wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up right at the tail-end of it, the 1984 Red Dawn was a perfectly reasonable scenario. Whenever I think the hysteria was completely insane I think back to my parents and grandparents and some of the truly bizarre notions that happened during their youth: duck and cover, public bomb shelter drills, etc. People actually paid significant parts of their yearly salary to build, stock and maintain nuclear bomb shelt…

I remember when the monthly air-raid drills — first Wednesday of the month, 1:00PM — stopped, not because the Cold War had gotten any colder, but because the missile threat made the "I've got plenty of time to get to the shelter" bomber scenario almost laughable. I also remember the panic I felt, several years later, when the damned local siren went off (on the wrong day and at the wrong time of the day) because some…

Post by bdunbar » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 7:00 PM UTC

cyorir wrote: post #73

cstross wrote: post #8

Young folks today just don't believe how downright surreal (and scary) the cold war was to live through. Look, just read this wikipedia entry about the British Blue Peacock nuclear device, and boggle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock Yes. It's a chicken-heated atomic landmine. Not a joke: it was a Real Thing. And so was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device... The M-29 Davy Crock…

To be fair, the use of chickens in this project would have been perfectly reasonable. The chickens simply act as a heat source to protect the mechanism, they do not power it. An engineer today would likely make use of the thermoelectric effect to generate heat through electricity. Why use chickens instead? A few reasons might be: Materials were not as advanced then, so an electric mechanism would have been less relia…

Post by Spooky23 » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 7:34 PM UTC

Ygg2 wrote: post #97

cperciva wrote: post #80

“This is absolute madness, Ambassador,” President Merkin Muffley says in the film, after being told about the Soviets’ automated retaliatory system. “Why should you build such a thing?” In the case of the Russian "Dead Hand", one of the stated purposes was to reduce the potential for nuclear war, by allowing the command-and-control structure to delay the decision about retaliation until it is clear that a possible at…

It's missing the point somewhat. Dead Hand is Russia's nuclear deterrent against Russia. It would make no sense to broadcast it's existence to US. Why would Russia need deterrent against Russia? Some people in charge were wary of America and wanted a preemptive nuclear attack, to thwart chance of total nuclear annihilation. Dead Hand in theory allows Russia to deliver a Strike from beyond, thereby removing need for p…

Post by digi_owl » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 8:44 PM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #32

There's a fascinating chapter in 'the strategy of conflict' by Thomas Schelling [1] about accidental nuclear war. The theory is once both sides had nuclear submarines, any first launch would trigger mutually assured destruction - so no rational actor would ever launch first. And because of that, any threat to launch /intentionally/ sounds like a bluff. So if you want to threaten your enemy (for example, to make them…