How many nations don't get hit with nukes in a 1980s nuclear war?

If nuclear war broke out between the US and USSR in the 1980s, how many nations would avoid being hit with any nuclear weapons by either side?
 
If nuclear war broke out between the US and USSR in the 1980s, how many nations would avoid being hit with any nuclear weapons by either side?

This has been addressed in numerous threads: Despite the Cold War being over for 28 years the archives have not been published so we don't have a true idea. Second variable is, that we don't know how many weapons could have been realistically used (ie. no kept in reserve, not being destroyed before used etc.).

But Vanuatu and Fiji seem to be fairly sure bet.
 
Impossible to say but probably some Latin American and African nations might avoid direct nuclear hit. And perhaps some Pacific and Southern Asian nations are too quiet safe but this is pretty unsure. Surely North America and Europe would got most of nukes.
 
It wouldn't just be atomic weapons that would devastate the planet after a nuclear war. The loss of markets, foreign aid and economic trade and foreign money flow would collapse global economies beyond what was hit. That would not just be in terms of money itself, but also in terms of the collapse of the movement of food and other common goods. And the collapse of economies would decimate local production and movement of such things. Basically, anything taken for granted becomes a scarcity. Anything manufactured elsewhere is gone. And that matters because in economies, a lot comes from elsewhere because it can, and in a global market, nations focus on what they need to make and import whatever they don't need to make from elsewhere, keeping costs low and allowing local/national economies to focus on industries that are better economically. Anything produced locally will feel a great deal of strain. Not to mention fallout and problems in weather.

So basically, anywhere not hit by a nuclear warhead is going to be severely harmed nonetheless. Scarcity, starvation, collapse, decay, anarchy. Grow what you can in the fields and hope for the best.

Impossible to say but probably some Latin American and African nations might avoid direct nuclear hit. And perhaps some Pacific and Southern Asian nations are too quiet safe but this is pretty unsure. Surely North America and Europe would got most of nukes.

And Asia. Basically anywhere with an American, NATO, Warsaw Pact, Soviet, or Chinese military base or asset. And anywhere that the military forces of those factions fight.
 
One really wonders how much of South America could have been targeted. The Soviets may have targeted South American population centers with the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) version of the SS-9 Scarp ICBM, but those missiles were phased out in the early 1980's. And given the Soviet operational tactic of keeping their SLBM submarines as close to the shoreline of the Soviet Union (e.g., the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk), submarine based missiles would not have been able to reach targets in South America.
 
Top