The World Was Close to the Edge

Back in 1983 the world could have taken a really different turn from that which led to our reality. Of course: with the Cold War and all that, two warring parties, often envisaged in maps as blue and red were waist-deep in gasoline, both threatening to use one of the many matches they held in their hands if the other did any sudden movements. Mutually assured destruction was close many times, notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, there was another moment in history (a lot less known) that could have been a lot worse. I don't know if it has any name, but it has a year: 1983.

You can find all the details out there. I don't even know how much of this tiny slice of history is actually true or if it is just a really really good story. However, the story roughly goes like this:

In the Soviet Union, a lieutenant colonel by the name of Stanislav Petrov (supposedly) averted a global-scale nuclear war. When working at an early warning satellite network system codenamed 'Oko', the system erroneously displayed missiles coming in from outside, and Mr. Petrov, in a deviation from standard protocol identified the error and averted a cataclysm. That kind of situation is likely to be a real nerve-wracker. Now, think that if you don't know if it's a system error or a real warning, you have two choices with four possible outcomes:

The first and second outcomes - You genuinely think that there are inbound missiles so you react to the warning and decide to retaliate with your missiles. If there were really missiles coming in, you just ensured a global nuclear war by answering. If there were no missiles coming, you still triggered a world war that would kill billions because now the hair-trigger systems elsewhere in the world will retaliate just like you did. Hooray we all die.

The third outcome: You identify the warning as an error. It wasn't. You probably aren't alive today to tell the story.

The fourth outcome: It really is an error and you know it. You and I are here today and you are reading this.

Okay. So where am I going with this? Oh yea. A crazy bunch o' dudes took the time to flesh out an alternative reality where Mr. Petrov didn't avert the nuclear disaster. He was sent to another base and some incompetent nincompoop pretty much screwed up when the false alarm appeared on his screen. 1983:Doomsday seems to be an interesting project in the making. Just the imagery of what happened that day 27 years ago is frightening, but like any good story, it shows glimpses of hope for the future, where after almost 30 years the world is rebuilding and seeking to make ammends. Countries and unions like the Celtic Union (say what?!?), the ANZC (Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand) and the South American Confederation lead the new world order, mostly flipped upside down due to the devastation of much of the northern hemisphere!

I kinda cringe at some entries where at least the spelling could be better than ''seperate'' and stuff but it's on its way.

Am I done here? No. I have one more thing to tie into this topic: the irony of 1983. 1983 is the same year Samantha Smith, a young American girl wrote a letter to the then Russian leader, Mr. Andropov. Here's something about her:

(taken from http://www.samanthasmith.info/History1.htm )

"Actually, the whole thing started when I asked my mother if there was going to be a war. There was always something on television about missiles and nuclear bombs. Once I watched a science show on public television and the scientists said that a nuclear war would wreck the Earth and destroy the atmosphere. Nobody would win a nuclear war. I remembered that I woke up one morning and wondered if this was going to be the last day of the Earth.

I asked my mother who would start a war and why. She showed me a news magazine with a story about America and Russia, one that had a picture of the new Russian leader, Yuri Andropov, on the cover. We read it together. It seemed that the people in both Russia and America were worried that the other country would start a nuclear war. It all seemed so dumb to me. I had learned about the awful things that had happened during World War II, so I thought that nobody would ever want to have another war. I told Mom that she should write to Mr. Andropov to find out who was causing all the trouble. She said, "Why don't you write to him?" So I did."

The letter she wrote Andropov was the following:

Dear Mr. Andropov,

My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight.

Sincerely,

"Samantha Smith"

This heartwarming letter from Samantha got eventually this answer from Yuri Andropov:

Dear Samantha,

I received your letter, which is like many others that have reached me recently from your country and from other countries around the world.

It seems to me – I can tell by your letter – that you are a courageous and honest girl, resembling Becky, the friend of Tom Sawyer in the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain. This book is well known and loved in our country by all boys and girls.

You write that you are anxious about whether there will be a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask are we doing anything so that war will not break out.

Your question is the most important of those that every thinking man can pose. I will reply to you seriously and honestly.

Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything so that there will not be war on Earth. This is what every Soviet man wants. This is what the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us.

Soviet people well know what a terrible thing war is. Forty-two years ago, Nazi Germany, which strove for supremacy over the whole world, attacked our country, burned and destroyed many thousands of our towns and villages, killed millions of Soviet men, women and children.

In that war, which ended with our victory, we were in alliance with the United States: together we fought for the liberation of many people from the Nazi invaders. I hope that you know about this from your history lessons in school. And today we want very much to live in peace, to trade and cooperate with all our neighbors on this earth—with those far away and those near by. And certainly with such a great country as the United States of America.

In America and in our country there are nuclear weapons—terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we do not want them to be ever used. That's precisely why the Soviet Union solemnly declared throughout the entire world that never–never–will it use nuclear weapons first against any country. In general we propose to discontinue further production of them and to proceed to the abolition of all the stockpiles on Earth.

It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: 'Why do you want to wage war against the whole world or at least the United States?' We want nothing of the kind. No one in our country– neither workers, peasants, writers nor doctors, neither grown-ups nor children, nor members of the government–want either a big or 'little' war.

We want peace—there is something that we are occupied with: growing wheat, building and inventing, writing books and flying into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all peoples of the planet. For our children and for you, Samantha.

I invite you, if your parents will let you, to come to our country, the best time being this summer. You will find out about our country, meet with your contemporaries, visit an international children's camp – 'Artek' – on the sea. And see for yourself: in the Soviet Union, everyone is for peace and friendship among peoples.

Thank you for your letter. I wish you all the best in your young life.

"Y. Andropov"

While I don't see his letter as dishonest or anything when it comes to intentions, it flies in the face of what I've been going at during the first part of this post! That same year a few months later the world almost became lit with thousands of radioactive mushroom clouds that would then be followed by decades of darkness. He didn't know, of course, we all assume that things that can go really really bad won't go really super bad. Like BP and their black death spill.

Rest in peace Samantha Smith. I think that probably you were a reminder of the things in this world we have to protect and nurture. You became a hero of sorts in Russia and people there loved you while back in your country the whole thing was seen suspiciously like a political stunt. Sad. (1972-1985)