Deleted member 90563
I'd rather be incinerated in a flash, than slowly die of radiation poisoning, and living either 40 km from the centre of London, or in Frankfurt, surrounded by tens of thousands US soldiers, the first option seems likelier.
WW3 in the 70s?
- Thread starter Joseph Weaver
- Start date
David Flin
Gone Fishin'
I've described it before, so apologies to those who have heard the tale before.
1972. Arctic Norway. A Royal Marine learning to ski with the Norwegians. We were trundling along. They were rather better at it than I was - but then, a lot of them could literally ski before they could walk and I was an East End Boy and unused to snow. We trundled through desolate winter forest, and believe me, Arctic Norway is desolate in winter.
In due course, we saw some soldiers also skiing.
"This is where we go back," said the Norwegians.
"Why?"
"Because those are Soviet soldiers."
"What are they doing in Norway?" asked the aggressive Royal Marine.
"Oh, this is the Soviet Union. We're ten, fifteen miles across the border. We always see how far we can get before someone sees us. It's not a problem. We ski much better than they can."
It took me a moment to work out the logical flaw in this point of view. It was cold, OK?
"You can ski better than them. I'm just learning."
"Now is a good time to learn," they said, without a great deal of sympathy.
And that, gentle reader, is how I came to invade the Soviet Union more or less all by myself.
Curiously, the Soviets skied away from us. Apart from one young officer who was struggling as much as I was. He turned out to have been posted here from that well-known ski resort of Sevastapol and he didn't ski very well. He spoke English, which was good. Unfortunately, he had learned his English in Newcastle and spoke with a thick Geordie accent and I couldn't understand a word he said. We ended up having a chat in French, the closest we had to a common language.
He taught me why pepper is put in pepper vodka, and I taught him about winter beer.
You said you could have started WWIII...
But I think you could have started world peace here.
Well, it doesn't matter who has the better fighters and pilot training if both fighter and pilots have been vaporized into a mushroom cloud.
Large parts of the Southern Hemisphere will survive the exchange, but with as many nukes as there were at that time, even neutrals in the south could have ended up hit. Throw in nuclear winter and the disruption of the supply chains and the resulting famines will be horrible
Large parts of the Southern Hemisphere will survive the exchange, but with as many nukes as there were at that time, even neutrals in the south could have ended up hit. Throw in nuclear winter and the disruption of the supply chains and the resulting famines will be horrible
Pretty much. Posters in threads like these scoffing their country will be completely untouched because it's unaligned forget that everything's connected, and at a certain point things will fail or suffer..
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Yeah, Europe and Russia are simply...gone. Irradiated ruins at best. Israel's probably gone, Saudi Arabia and other UAE sites also probably get hit by nukes to deprive the 'enemy' of oil. In a full 'use it or loose it' exchange with NATO and the Warsaw pact throwing EVERYTHING into it, then China probably gets hit, India and Pakistan too. Japan (US air bases) as well as basically huge chunks of the USA are also in ruins.
Meanwhile, are all doing the "lol i ded" now?
Well, I never exist. Being born in 1985, my parents either haven't even met or are only just dating, so... not a lot of worry on my end. Their survival is possible, though, as they lived in suburban Vermont at the time - the Soviets probably didn't think Barre worth nuking.
My father worked for radio stations in Portland, Maine in the late 70s, early 80s before my sister and I came along. He told me about how he could see the CONELRAD in his office, being the morning news guy - so, he could have been one of the first civvies to know The End was here. He said he'd look at it... realize he could die any minute... then go back to work. It's all you could do, he said.
Mom simply refused to think it could happen. Also, despite her hatred of disaster movies and depressing things, she watched The Day After when it premiered - a fact that still stuns me:
ME: Mom. You did not watch The Day After.
MOM: Yes I did! Jason Robards was wandering around a burned-down city and looked really sick...
ME: ...
MOM: I just started watching and I didn't stop!
Well, I never exist. Being born in 1985, my parents either haven't even met or are only just dating, so... not a lot of worry on my end. Their survival is possible, though, as they lived in suburban Vermont at the time - the Soviets probably didn't think Barre worth nuking.
My father worked for radio stations in Portland, Maine in the late 70s, early 80s before my sister and I came along. He told me about how he could see the CONELRAD in his office, being the morning news guy - so, he could have been one of the first civvies to know The End was here. He said he'd look at it... realize he could die any minute... then go back to work. It's all you could do, he said.
Mom simply refused to think it could happen. Also, despite her hatred of disaster movies and depressing things, she watched The Day After when it premiered - a fact that still stuns me:
ME: Mom. You did not watch The Day After.
MOM: Yes I did! Jason Robards was wandering around a burned-down city and looked really sick...
ME: ...
MOM: I just started watching and I didn't stop!
Deleted member 90563
You'd be just another mutant (not the super-powered type) roaming the wastelands.
As I said, if our POD is It Goes Hot in the 1970s, I clearly never exist being born in 1985.
I didn't really specify thought it could be ether early 70's or for a more fun experience the late 70s with good old Jimmy Carter as President
What about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Would that be a good POD?
I've always found that weird that WW3 usually takes place in the 60s or the 80s and not some other time like the 70s or the 40s with the Berlin Blockade.
Sure, if they accepted significant casualties. The question is why they would do that. The seat of decision is on land: how does this help effect a decision on the ground? Frankly, the answer is "it doesn't", so they wouldn't try.