On June 3, 1980, in the United States, the American computer reporting of a Soviet nuclear attack declared a nuclear alert throughout the country. Later, specialists discovered that one of the computers in the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), had failed.
For 10 minutes, the world was on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. The launchers of the intercontinental ballistic missiles "Minuteman" received an arming command and the crews of the strategic bombers took their seats in the aircraft.
However, the computers did not show a clear and coherent picture of the attack — instead, the screens showed constantly changing numbers of rockets fired, and the numbers did not always coincide with the various command points.
As it turned out later, the computer and system crash was caused by a defective chip priced at only 46 cents. The disaster was averted by the people, who reasonably considered that the attack could not have been launched without a particular reason.
Those who were born in the 1980s and 1990s, are difficult to comprehend fully how real and near to the global catastrophe we were in the twentieth century ... Although the West has shaped, and is still shaping a certain worldview about the forthcoming nuclear Armageddon on Earth, in the film industry, where fiction and myths prevail over reality.
How the launch of nuclear missiles can be caused by someone's stupidity or error, and how the U.S. governmental machine terrify the world by means of Hollywood about the Soviet (Russian) threat, is actually being discussed in this article.
June 3 is the anniversary of the fatal error that could have destroyed the Earth with a nuclear strike in the far 1980. For 10 minutes, our planet was on the brink of a nuclear war. According to a combined North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Soviet Union allegedly launched 220 missiles targeting the United States.
It was further clarified that the number of missiles had doubled. Such a mistake, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, could have destroyed 85 million people in six hours.
And this fateful mistake was not alone, and it was named as follows: cases of false firing of missile warning systems — a situation in which the world was on the threshold of a global nuclear war. To date, in addition to the Caribbean crisis, four such cases are known. Two of these relate to the work of the Soviet Missile attack warning System, two more - with the American early warning system.
The Third World War could have started several times because of the false trigger of the warning system. The decision to retaliate must be taken within minutes. The military and political leaders of the countries were in such situations under great strain, but history has shown that common sense and a sense of self-preservation are stronger than the "defense consciousness", so it helps to neutralize technological errors.