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On February 5, 1958, a B-47 carrying a nuclear bomb collided with an F-86, and jettisoned its payload (after receiving permission to do so). In 1966, Assistant Secretary of Defense W.J. Howard testified before Congress that the Tybee Island bomb was a "complete weapon, a bomb with a nuclear capsule," and one of two weapons lost up to that time that contained a plutonium trigger.

The chances of it going off when jettisoned were very low, but 'very low' does not equal 'ASB'. So, suppose that the bomb had gone off. Its said to have been deadly to everyone within 250 miles, which would take a pretty nasty bite out of Georgia, and the sight of the mushroom cloud would have seriously panicked those far enough away to survive.

So, what effect would this have on the timeline of history? How would the Cold War be different?

If something like the Cuban Missile Crisis still happened, how would it had been handled?
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