Your favourite Cold war close call?

The Cuban Missile Crisis, both superpowers were not only very close to destroying each other but they also had access to a nuclear missile that's close to their respective enemies. :eek:
 
Just as a matter of interst there were no SS4 or SS5s emplaced in Cuba, the crisis ended before they were deployed. There were tactical nukes deployed, both on planes and Frog rockets, as people have mentioned.
 
Able Archer for me I think.
Interestingly the KGB believed that lights being on in the MoD in London late into the night was evidence that NATO was planning an attack. However in reality it was just to allow the cleaners to do their job. :D

That particular crisis illustrated that the KGB was excellent at gathering information, but terrible at analysing what it actually meant.

When it came to analysis it was pretty much the case that there was a culture of telling those above what they wanted/expected to hear. Also at the time I believe instructions from the center were for residents to spend most of their resources on looking for evidence of that first strike NATO had to be planning. So they sort of had to send back reports on what the center wanted otherwise it didn't look like they were following orders and then the center would pass it on in a way that toed the party line anyway.

They did much better in the field of science and technical where it wasn't as political.
 
The story of Stanislav Petrov.
Which, by the way - at least according to Wikipedia - seems to be the same as the Able Archer incident; I have never before heard or seen it being referred to in this way, though :confused:
 
I remember when we used to be scared of the Russians. We even had a President who signed a bill outlawing Russia forever...the bombing was supposed to begin in five minutes...

...and while I'm reminsicing, get off my lawn! ;)

Oh, Reagan...back when the conservatives made sense, and my side had respectable enemies...

My personal favorite is the Foxtrot Class submarine B-59, Captain Savitsky commanding. The captain and the political officer both wanted to put a nuclear torpedo into the USS Randolph. XO Arkhipov talked them into contacting Moscow for instructions, and saved the world while he was at it.

I wrote a short story about it for English class...it's gone now, but it ended with the captain of the Randolph praying "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name..." as the nuclear torpedo streaked towards his ship and his radio operator sent word to Norfolk.
 
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