80s Cold War fear - it's back

Interesting viewing, I must check out the rest of the "Protect and Survive" (HA!) series. Threads is a good gritty film. Not Hollywood quality but possibly more realistic because of that. I remember being scared witless by "Special Bulletin" years ago.

As for the current sabre rattling by Putin, it really seems like he's just whipped out his lad and he wants to see if NATO will compare sizes with him over this missile shield business.....metaphorically speaking, of course. Let's just hope that we don't have a 1983 crisis all over again, where the world comes pretty close to the brink without most of us knowing a thing about it.

Ah, I was only joking with my All Things Retro comment.

There's a great Peter Cook spoof of videos on this sort of thing: "Now, when the attack happens, you need to get right out of the Danger Area. Just get right out of there...".

Dudess wrote:

Wasn't aware of that - although my mum used to go to CND meetings in Cork all the time back then. And that of course was the time of the Greenham Common demonstrations. I'd prefer not to be aware of it though, to be honest. Don't fancy a Bay of Pigs type scenario. My parents say that was probably the most terrifying time of their lives.

I forget what comedy it was where an old man and woman are talking about the "good old days" when people were nicer and there was nothing to worry about "except nuclear war". I was a nice quote, i thought. Here's a coupe of links about the 1983 crisis:

Un
Duex

My dad remembers living in London during the Cuban missile crisis. He went for a stroll to ease his neres before tuning in to JFK's address to the nation (believe me, it was an address to the world) regarding the USA's findings in Cuba. He remembers strolling to the tip of a hill and looking down over a vast swathe of houses. At that time of night, only street lights were usually seen. On that night, every single house had at least one light on. Everyone was listening to the radio to find out what the USA's move would be. My Dad remembers the following quote from JFK vividly:

We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth; but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.

robinph wrote:

And what is the benifit of knowing about it? Think I would rather be blissfully unaware of what was going on until the moment I look up in the sky and notice a big firework flying towards me.

I, on the other hand, would like to know if one was on the brink of happening so I could mentally prepare myself for the possibility that it could all go tits up at any moment. I don't want to be surprised, athough that might be the best way. I want to have at least some warning of what's coming.

I think I'd be the only person who'd be driving/running into a city instead of out of one if the air raid sirens started to blare. In the case of a nuclear WW3, I'd want a missile to land right on my head. No pain. Yes, I'm a coward when it comes to enduring a nuclear holocaust. I'm not too thrilled about the idea of surviving one either. I'm not the rugged outdoors type. I bleed too easily.

Remember kids!
Duck and cover and you will be safe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I

robinph wrote:

I'd be right with you on the running towards the bomb, unfortunately I'm not sure that Ireland is likely to get many direct hits or be very high up anyones list of primary targets so is probably the last place you'd want to be in the event of WW3 as we'd just get all the fallout from our neighbours in the rest of Europe. Although the gulf stream might save Ireland from too much bad stuff making it this way but we'd be in the unfortunate situation of having Cork as the only habitable place left in Europe and would be the new capital of the world.

Eh, I think that we'd be "lucky" in that Ire;and would be decimated along with the rest of the world. I'm pretty certain that Dublin City, Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport would all be hit (maybe 2 small bombs or 1 big bomb for Dublin). Belfast would be hit as well, I'm sure. So that's at least three (probably) small bombs hitting Ireland, if not four. That would account for the rest of us in Ireland anyway unless the prevailing winds were very kind to the North West, which is the only area that I can see keeping things going for a short while after the apocalypse. We're stuck nicely in the corner, so we might be OK for a short while. Our time would come though.

EDIT: I say a man with a PROC t-shirt on him last week. Do you think the Corkonians have send advance parties around the world for new cities to inhabit if Cork is evacuated after the war? :eek:

Well there are not any military bases worth hitting in Ireland, other than Shannon and only then if there are a few US transporter planes are parked there at the time, and Dublin and Belfast would be quite a way down the list of major population centers that would be targeted in Europe as they are only small citys really. Although if they have a few spare bombs that they are not sure what to do with after hitting all the main targets they might send a couple our way, but every little military base in the rest of Europe would surely be hit first.

monkeyfudge wrote:

Good thing these days we all have our iodine tablets so there isn't anything to worry about.

Was anyone ever issued any more of them after the best before date passed?

Not that I'd have any problems taking out of date iodine tablets if there was an emergency....or that they'll actually do much for that matter.