Cuban Missle crissis refresher

[Garfield1966]

I had a situation the other day when they said President Putin said that our missile defense program was like the Cuban Missile Crisis. And so I got asked about the Cuban Missile Crisis and I was panicked a little bit because I really know nothing about the Cuban Missile Crisis...I came home and I asked my husband...wasn't that like, the Bay Of Pigs thing? And he said, "Oh, Dana."

It's not like this was some unknown skirmish that took place 2,000 years ago. This was what amounted to a show down between THE two nuclear powers which included the blockade of ships from one nuclear power trying to enter a sovereign nation. As I recall a movie or two were made on the event as well as one or two or a hundred documentaries. Then there is the fact that it is covered in a few history books as well.

I realize that this administration does not bases their hiring qualifications on intelligence but this is pathetic. If she worked for me, she would no longer work for me.

The kicker for me was that she seemed to think it was funny. I'd be embarrassed as hell and I am not even in politics.

 

[North by Northwest]

You are White House Press and you don't know anything about the single event in mankinds history that almost destroyed the planet? RICH!

 

[local 12 proud]

Yea, like wow scooby doo! :huh:

 

[delldude]

I had a situation the other day when they said President Putin said that our missile defense program was like the Cuban Missile Crisis. And so I got asked about the Cuban Missile Crisis and I was panicked a little bit because I really know nothing about the Cuban Missile Crisis...I came home and I asked my husband...wasn't that like, the Bay Of Pigs thing? And he said, "Oh, Dana."

It's not like this was some unknown skirmish that took place 2,000 years ago. This was what amounted to a show down between THE two nuclear powers which included the blockade of ships from one nuclear power trying to enter a sovereign nation. As I recall a movie or two were made on the event as well as one or two or a hundred documentaries. Then there is the fact that it is covered in a few history books as well.

I realize that this administration does not bases their hiring qualifications on intelligence but this is pathetic. If she worked for me, she would no longer work for me.

The kicker for me was that she seemed to think it was funny. I'd be embarrassed as hell and I am not even in politics.

Maybe its time to look at the education system.

I had dudes working for me in heavy check in their 20's who didn't have a clue what

Woodstock was.So go figure.

 

[Garfield1966]

I can understand some people not knowing specifics. I do not know the exact year and month of Woodstock. I have heard of wood stock and read a little about it. I do not know when the Cuban missile crisis happened (I know it was between 60-63) but I know of it and I know other details.

Yes the school system needs a overhaul top to bottom but in her case it goes beyond that. She is politics. She works in the White House. SHE IS THE FREAKING PRESS SECRETARY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. To me that just shows a complete lack of interest in the world around you. I am interested in politics and in history so I read about stuff that pertains to that. The best schools in the world could not help her because she has no interest in helping her self.

According to some people who were around back then, people were scared sh1tless that some dumb ass was going to hit the button and we would all be dead. That is a significant event in history as is Sputnik, Apollo/Soyez and several other events in our recent past. My distastes for W aside, she is an embarrassment and she should hand in her resignation. There is no need for someone with her obvious short comings to represent the White House. They have a bad enough reputation already and this just makes it worse. And yet it barely makes a blip on the news radar. How sad.

 

[North by Northwest]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis (there is also an EXCELLENT movie out titled "13 days")

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the military confrontation among the United States of America, the Soviet Union, and Cuba when the Cold War threatened to become a nuclear war. Direct military attack was considered; Air Force Gen. Curtis Lemay presented to Kennedy a pre-invasion bombing plan in September, while spy flights and minor military harassment from the United States Guantánamo Naval Base were the subject of continual Cuban diplomatic complaints to the U.S. government.
U.S. nuclear advantage

The United States had the weapons advantage against the USSR until the Crisis. It is now known that in 1962 the U.S. had nine times as many rockets as the USSR: 27,297 to 3,332.[9] Before being arrested on the Crisis's first day, KGB Colonel Oleg Penkovsky was a British-American spy. Historian Melman notes, "the proceedings of his trial in April 1963 revealed that he had delivered 5,000 frames of film of Soviet military-technical information, apart from many hours of talk with Western agents during several trips to western Europe"; the Soviets concluded "that the U.S. then possessed decisive advantage in arms and intelligence, and that the USSR no longer wielded a credible nuclear deterrent".[10]

Incapable of matching American bomber airplane production, the Russians had instead developed rockets.[11] After the Sputnik satellite was launched, the U.S. shifted from aeroplanes to rockets, previously a low-priority, to develop Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).[11]

John von Neumann’s computer modeling rendered U.S. missiles and nuclear warheads light and economical.[11] The heavy (276-ton), bulky Soviet R-7 Semyorka ported a (3-ton), 3-megaton warhead 5,800 miles (9,330 km); the lighter, smaller (130-ton) U.S. Atlas ported a (1.5-ton) 3.8-megaton warhead 11,500 miles (18,510 km).[11] In October 1960, Soviet rocket scientists were killed in the Nedelin catastrophe; it delayed the Soviet R-16 ICBM program for a year. During the Caribbean Crisis, the USSR had only four R-7s and few R-16s deployed in vulnerable surface launchers, while the U.S. had 142 Atlas and 62 Titan I ICBMs, mostly in hardened underground silos.[11]

Moreover, in July 1960, the U.S. could launch 1,000-mile (1,600 km)-range Polaris SLBMs from submerged submarines[11] (me mates), while the Soviet submarine fleet had only some 100 technically-primitive, short range V-1-type cruise missiles launchable only from surfaced submarines.

 

[delldude]

I think the cuban missile "crisis" is the most overblown piece from the 60's.So what Ivan put

nukes in Cuba 90 miles from the mainland.

Kennedy had Jupiter C's- 16 minutes from Moscow so why does everyone still today #### a brick

over Kennedy's stupidity?He instigated the mess and in the end he pulled the missiles from

Turkey.Kennedy alone brought the country to the brink.....

Kennedy puts missiles in Turkey in 61 and Nikita flips in 62.....Kennedy was some type hero?

So who won?

According to some people who were around back then, people were scared sh1tless that some dumb ass was going to hit the button and we would all be dead.

Sleep tight Gar...

1. October 5, 1960
Early Warning System radar in Greenland mistakes a reflection off the moon for a massive Soviet missile barrage. Catastrophe is averted when radar operators catch the error.

2. October 25, 1962
A guard at an Air Force base in Duluth, Minnesota, shoots someone climbing a fence (not knowing it’s a bear), which triggers a miswired alarm at an Air National Guard base in Wisconsin. Nuclear-armed F-106 fighter jets scramble.

3. November 9, 1979
A training tape depicting a Soviet attack is inadvertently played on Norad computers. Senator Charles Percy (R-Illinois), visiting at the time, describes a scene of “panic.â€

4. June 3, 1980
Phantom inbound missiles appear on computer screens at Strategic Air Command and, later, at the Pentagon. Before the problem is discovered, SAC readies its B-52 bombers for takeoff.

5. September 26, 1983
Soviet systems report US ICBM launches. The colonel on duty, fearing a false alarm, doesn’t recommend a counterstrike. The “missile plumes†turn out to be the glare of the sun, but Soviet high command reprimands him anyway.

6. November 1983
Able Archer 83 – a realistic NATO training exercise – includes rehearsing for nukes. The edgy Soviets, who notice an increase in communications between the US and the UK before the drill, think it’s the real thing.

7. January 25, 1995
Russian radar interprets a NASA research rocket as a US submarine-based missile. President Boris Yeltsin puts his country on alert.

8. June 6, 2002
At the height of India-Pakistan nuclear tensions, a 32-foot asteroid explodes over the Mediterranean. Had it fallen to Earth hours earlier, it would have caused a blast over south Asia indistinguishable from a first strike.

- Patrick Di Justo

 

[North by Northwest]

January 10, 1961; Cape Canaveral, Florida
UFO alters Navy Polaris test

Summer of 1961; Near Moscow
Missile battry fires at Disc. UFO stalls electrical apparatus.

August 7, 1962; Oracle, Arizona
UFO over Titan missile silo, Jets sent up
April 28, 1964; Minot AFB, North Dakota (BBU).

September 15, 1964; Big Sur, California
UFO Destroys Atlas warhead, filmed by military tracking crew

April, 1966; Malmstrom AFB, Montana (BBU)
UFOs, alarms, 10 missiles inoperative. (McDonald)

June 16, 1966; Elista, Kalmuk, Russia
Scientist report UFO maneuv nr missile test.

August 24, 1966; Minot AFB, [Grano? Carpio?] North Dakota (BBU)
10 p.m. Airman saw and reported by radio a multi-colored light high in the sky. Strike team sent to his location confirmed the object. Second object, white, was seen to pass in front of clouds. Radar detected and tracked an object. Sightings made by 3 different Minuteman ICBM missile sites. Radio interference was noted by teams sent to locations where object was hovering at ground level. (Vallée Magonia 791; FUFOR Index)

March 5, 1967; Minot AFB, North Dakota (BBU)
ADC radar tracked an unidentified target descending over the Minuteman ICBM missile silos of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing. Base security teams saw a metallic, disc-shaped object ringed with bright flashing lights moving slowly, maneuvering, then stopping and hovering about 500 ft above ground. Object circled directly over the launch control facility. F-106 fighters were scrambled but at that moment object climbed straight up and disappeared at high speed. (Ray Fowler; etc.)

 

[Garfield1966]

You left off the one a few months ago. A B52 was sitting out on the tarmac for several hours with nukes that no one knew where there. I used to subscribe to the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" (the Nuke countdown clock people) and if I remember correctly, they had a list substantially longer than what you noted above of nuke screw ups.

I was aware of the nukes in Turkey. We were going to get rid of them anyway since they were liquid fueled (IIRC) and very out of date. From what I have read it was not all Kennedys baby (yes he was POTUS and the final responsibility is his). My understanding is that the info came to light and given the abject fear and terror that was spread about the evil empire prior to that incident, the people freaked and Kennedy "had" to do something. I am not arguing that this makes it right but I think that is what happened.

Regardless of what really happened, at the time is was a major issue and looking back, it was a major piece of American history. And the fact still remains that the Speaker for the White House had no freaking idea what happened during an important time in American History.

 

[delldude]

Its the most recent ones that you hear of and you stop and think....what you were doing

at that moment that some person almost.

 

[local 12 proud]

Its the most recent ones that you hear of and you stop and think....what you were doing

at that moment that some person almost.

Exactly...I for one was 4 years old when JFK took a fatal head shot in Dallas. sure I learned of the cuban missle crisis thru history books, but it did'nt have the same impact for me as those who grasped the full extent of the sitiuation and lived thru it.

BTW... we're on the brink of a new cold war, yet many Americans could'nt show you where Russia is on a map.

Says alot about our education system!

 

[KCFlyer]

Exactly...I for one was 4 years old when JFK took a fatal head shot in Dallas. sure I learned of the cuban missle crisis thru history books, but it did'nt have the same impact for me as those who grasped the full extent of the sitiuation and lived thru it.

BTW... we're on the brink of a new cold war, yet many Americans could'nt show you where Russia is on a map.

Says alot about our education system!

Well...I lived in Orlando, Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis...home of McCoy Air force Base (hence the MCO designator) which based nuclear equipped B52's as well as U2 spy planes. My elementary school was on the flight path to MCO and teachers had to basically stop teaching about every 5 minutes as the B52's took off on an almost constant basis (hey were VERY loud on takeoff) I also recall hiding under my desk, although at the time I wasn't exactly certain why. I remember in 1966 we took a field trip to the Air Force base and they let us climb into the belly of a B52...rather amazing site for a school kid. I noticed a black plane near a hanger and asked out guide what it was. He said "That's a U2 - and this is as close as you're allowed to get to it. The guards have orders to shoot to kill - and they don't care how old the person is".

 

[Garfield1966]

The guards have orders to shoot to kill - and they don't care how old the person is".

Chicken :ninja:

 

[KCFlyer]

Chicken :ninja:

sixth graders are very impressionable.

 

[Garfield1966]

sixth graders are very impressionable.

I am sure they would have at least fired a warning shot, at worst just popped you in the leg or ass. I still hink you should have gone for it. Think of the fire side stories you could tell now.