A Protect and Survive What If--Reagan talking to Ogarkov...

TheKinkster

Banned
Going with the flow...in that last conversation, after Ogarkov makes his demand for a natural Soviet border at the Rhine...

What if Reagan, instead of just saying they were at an impasse, had said "We know what you're thinking about doing. If we see so much as a single missile headed our way, we will launch every last firecracker at you, immediately."

Do you think that last-second threat of a total launch on warning of a Soviet attack could have talked Ogarkov out of pushing the button?
 
Going with the flow...in that last conversation, after Ogarkov makes his demand for a natural Soviet border at the Rhine...

What if Reagan, instead of just saying they were at an impasse, had said "We know what you're thinking about doing. If we see so much as a single missile headed our way, we will launch every last firecracker at you, immediately."

Do you think that last-second threat of a total launch on warning of a Soviet attack could have talked Ogarkov out of pushing the button?

By that point, IMO, Ogarkov was well on his way to launching the missiles. That might have pushed him over the edge.
 

TheKinkster

Banned
Quite possibly. I had told my daughter about this thread, and she was reading some of it while she was here yesterday. She asked me the question, and I thought it interesting enough to bring it up here. Personally, I think you MIGHT be right--but there was SOME time between that phone call and the Soviet launch. It might have given Ogarkov pause for thought...or maybe moved someone to try to remove him.
 
"but there was SOME time between that phone call and the Soviet launch. It might have given Ogarkov pause for thought...or maybe moved someone to try to remove him.

That would be an interesting avenue, because of all the people you could get post-Andropov, Nikolai Ogarkov was pretty over the top...
And would make a perfect launch pad for "Protect and Survive 1991", if you had a hardliner...

Or consider...You had a power struggle within the Soviet Union..during the war in Europe. Hmm..so many avenues to consider..
 
Well Kinkster came up with the idea to begin with and started the thread..


If anything else...I even had an "Alternative Chip" who was looking forward to what he'd be in that 1991...sort of :)
 
I feel like by that point, nuclear warfare was almost a given. Unless NATO asked for an immediate armistice on Soviet terms, nukes were going to fly.
 
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