The Last Chance of 'Winning' a Nuclear War was 1957

With almost 2k bombers, 10k+ warheads, and 68 airbases spread across the world, Strategic Air Command in 1957 was ready to fly in to strike 4,609 DGZs (Designated Ground Zeros)... aka targets before the Soviets had an active ICBM force.

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Credits:

Footage:
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

The NATO Channel

Ministry of Defence of Estonia

Department of Defense (US)
"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

KCNA - North Korea State Media

Music:

[panachevitz]

A document that someone might find interesting is a book titled "Dropshot: The US' Plan for war with the Soviet Union in 1957" that is the declassified war plans of the US from the 1950s for how to fight WW3 against the Soviets. It is much more than just a quick rehash of anything, it's how to mobilize the economy/military forces, where to stage offensives, targets, force structures, everything that you would need as a strategic plan. I picked it up on Amazon, so it's still sort of available.

[cm]

The more you read about the Cold War, the amazed you become that we don’t wipe ourselves out given how batshit insane everyone seemed to be.

[aammnn]

Gentleman, You can't fight in here! This is the war room!!

[alansewell]

Years ago, I asked a retired USAF pilot, whose mission in a nuclear war was to bomb the Soviet military center at Khabarovsk, if he was worried about blowing his own plane out of the sky in the back blast from a nuclear detonation of one of his bombs. He said he didn't worry about that, but about nuclear bombs from "another service" landing on the city while he was lining up to bomb it, i.e. submarine launched ballistic missiles or land-based ICBMs. There would have been nuclear weapons landing everywhere in a hot war. After the Cold War, he said he visited Khabarovsk as a civilian tourist and was glad he didn't ever have to destroy it.

[antimox]

I'm a Russian that used to live near Kurchatov Institute of Nuclear Energy in Moscow. It was one of the primary targets described in these documents. It never really occurred to me, since I was born after the fall of the USSR, and now I am just sitting there astonished

[texasranger]

...but did you get satellite footage from 1957 to count the russian nuclear bombers?

[douglasb]

As a Greek philosopher said 2000 years ago “the inevitability of war was the rise in power of Sparta and the fear it caused in Athens. “

[gryff]

The Linebacker 2 bombing raids in Vietnam 1972/3 gives a good indication of what happens to B52s when it's done right and also when it's done wrong.

[CountArtha]

Eisenhower made it plain that he saw nuclear weapons as a valid option. His exact words were: _"I know of no reason why a large explosion shouldn't be used as freely as a small explosion."_

[antonleimbach]

My dad was in the Air Force during the 1950’s and he remembers the bombers they were flying above the North Pole with live atom bombs in them. He repaired the engines of the KC-135’s they used to refuel those bombers. Day and night those planes were circling the pole ready to wipe out millions of people.

[frankskinner]

So stoked you're doing your old format of videos!

[danscan]

I think this is the incident my father talked about when he was in the Air Force. He was an electrician for B-36s and stationed in North Africa (Wheelus?).
A colonel got on the cafeteria table and announced that everything done today needs to be done correctly and quickly. Get you job finish it and get another one.
Then while doing the work he saw them loading the bombs. MP with their dogs escorting the bombs to the aircraft and being loaded. I think he said the bombs were concealed as they moved them to the bombers.
They were lined up for take off when everything was called off.

[PeacePetal]

It should be noted that the USSR *did* have plans for one-way bombing missions against the US. The US ran training exercises in the ‘50s to practice against this sort of attack. They found that their interceptors were insufficient to stop even Tu-4s if they attacked with surprise, at night, from multiple directions, etc. These frightening results led to a big push for better interceptors, culminating in the F-106.

The US undoubtedly had the advantage in nuclear warheads and their delivery systems in 1957. They would have “won, ” but they’d be rolling the dice in terms of how many Soviet bombers made it through. One is still too many!

As for stopping ICBMs, the billion-dollar invention you're looking for is anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs). The Soviets pioneered the concept with their A-35 missile network around Moscow. However, as the Americans began experimenting and the Soviets looked to expand their network, people began to realize the horrifying reality: If either side built up enough of an ABM network to feel like they had any shot at "winning" a nuclear war, the chances of a nuclear war actually happening would go up considerably. ABMs threatened the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, so they were banned by rather comprehensive treaties.

Some modern-day SAM systems can theoretically stop ICBMs, but then you have ICBMs with MIRVs that are harder to stop. In any case, no country ever deployed ABMs in massive networks protecting strategic targets like the US was talking about doing with the Star Wars program.

[Jon-ugle]

I was born at that Casablanca base as my dad was a B-47 pilot.

[Michael_Farquharson]

Bomber gap? But what about the mineshaft gap!

[ACMaddocks]

I met a TAC F-15 pilot in the early 80's while we were both on deployment for an exercise in the Philippines, and he was telling me that his first assignment back in the mid-60's was being stationed in Alaska flying F-105's, training for WW3 strike missions into Russia. Yep... it would have been a one-way trip.

[minxythemerciless]

There was also 1973 when Russia deployed nukes to Egypt in anticipation of Israel using nukes to try and defeat the Egyptians. In the end neither used them but Russia was quite prepared to retaliate.

[GreenspudTrades]

My dad was the bomber/navigator on the B-47. He would have loved this video!

[flyingdude]

Highly recommend the book Command and Control: Nuclear weapons, Damascus Accident, and Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser. After reading the book I'm surprised we didn't accidently nuke ourselves or the fact that we didn't start world war 3 based on how little command and control existed early on for nukes as in hopefully this general doesn't go nuts.

[chrisd]

i was always against nuclear weapons. The older i get, i come to the conclusion that the MAD is what saved us from WW3