On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union conducted an atmospheric test of the largest thermonuclear weapon ever created: The Tsar Bomba. Named for its unmatched destructive potential, the “emperor of bombs” yielded a blast of 50 megatons, nearly 2,000 times more powerful than the bomb the United States dropped on Nagasaki. The bomb was so […]
60 Years After the Cuban Missile Crisis, We Should Learn from the Past, Not Manipulate It
By John Erath This week marks the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, generally considered to be the closest the world came to all out nuclear war. Perhaps inevitably, much of the commentary has highlighted supposed parallels to the current situation, specifically Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons in support of its aggression against […]
The Soviet False Alarm Incident and Able Archer 83
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviets designed an early-warning radar system meant to track fast-moving threats to increase the chance of reprisal. On September 26, 1983, however, the system, code-named Oko, malfunctioned. At around midnight, Oko’s alarms rang out, alerting the base of one incoming nuclear missile. The screen read, “LAUNCH,” which […]
The Norwegian Rocket Incident (The Black Brant Scare)
On January 25, 1995, Russian officers at the Olenegorsk Radar Station in the northwestern region of Russia detected the “launch” of what appeared to be a 4-stage missile off Norway’s northern coast. Although the officers were not able immediately identify the missile, the altitude and distance traveled appeared to align closely with the U.S. submarine-launched […]
Beyond Irony: Putin’s Threats and the International Day of Peace
By John Erath September 21 is the “International Day of Peace,” as declared by the UN in 1981. It is therefore something beyond ironic that it was chosen by Vladimir Putin as the appropriate moment to announce a “partial mobilization” of 300,000 reservists to provide additional cannon fodder for Russian operations in Ukraine. Putin cloaked […]
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