Defense from Atomic Attack, Look Magazine
John Vachon (Public Domain)
When I was 10 years old, I was trained to “duck and cover.” It was the Cold War era and every year the United States and the Soviet Union would test ever larger nuclear weapons. Simultaneously ballistic missile and bomber development raced ahead, just like today. The Doomsday Clock[1] ticked toward Armageddon. It was 2-minutes to Midnight. The potential for a nuclear disaster was very real. A few years later, the US and Soviet Union were eye to eye in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Again, the world was on the precipice of annihilation; just as we are today.
Both sides realized how close to destruction we had come and changed strategies. For the next two decades our two nations sparred back and forth using proxy wars rather than direct conflict. Millions suffered and countries were devastated, just like today.
And then, after two decades, the Soviet Union disintegrated and the nations behind the Iron Curtain found themselves free to determine their own futures. No longer pawns of Moscow, they chose to look West with its prosperity and freedom. For a while, there was Spring and hostilities between the US and Russia seemed to thaw.
However, by 2007 Russia was back in the grip of unreformed soviet apparatchiks and gangsters. Putin was in power. He delivered a chilling message at the 2007 Munich Security Conference that declared the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th Century. Putin made it clear that his goal was to reestablish Russian dominion in Eastern Europe. From then until now, Putin has worked diligently to undermine the economic and political security of Western Europe, fragment NATO and diminish its military capabilities, and corrupt the political processes in the US. Putin used the divisions created by our own wannabe autocrats to divide us further, making us weak, ineffectual, and possibly becoming another failed state.
Since 2007, the Russian military has undergone a major upgrade, re-arming with state-of-the-art weapons. The Russians report that some of their new technologies have frightening capabilities, nuclear powered and armed cruise missiles and torpedoes, global ranges and prolonged periods of operation.
A few days ago, Putin blatantly threatened Western Europe and the US by putting Russia’s nuclear forces on an elevated level of readiness. And tonight, there are reports that Russian tanks have fired on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, located in the city of Energodar. The attacked started a fire in a facility just outside the fences that protect the reactors and generators. At this time, it appears there is no radiation leakage, and the plant continues to operate safely.
Sixty-five years after duck-and-cover, the Doomsday Clock has run down to 100-seconds before the darkest hour.
- The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947. The bulletin began as a newsletter after the nuclear destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic scientists understood that the public and national leadership needed the clearest analysis and information to navigate the new perilous world we had entered. The Doomsday Clock first appeared in 1947. It is a simple graphic that clearly shows how close to extinction we have come. Over the years, the clock has been reset 24 times. Sometimes advancing towards midnight and others retreating. Until, recently, the closest we’ve come to Midnight was in 1953. However, tonight the clock sets at 100-seconds to Midnight. It is the worse it has ever been. ↑