Current US Military

[Smitty-48]

bear in mind, at the time, nobody in America was aware of anything going on

the War Scare was only happening in the Soviet Union, America was totally oblivious, nobody knew

NATO Exercise Able Archer, OKO satellite false launch warning, Soviets at the brink of an accidental first strike

we had no idea, although everybody suspected that sort of thing was what was going to start the war

[Smitty-48]

as a boy, I remember thinking that it was actually in progress

President Reagan called the Soviets an "Evil Empire"

the Soviets shot down KAL 007 on 1 September

Hezbollah bombed the Marines in Beirut and American forces went on high alert worldwide, on 23 October

America invaded Grenada on 25 October

I was kind of seeing it from the Soviet point of view, it definitely seemed to be escalating rapidly in the moment

[DrYouth]

Seems to me that it makes sense to contain the Bear.

It was getting a little too frisky.

Let's check in with Smitty now.

Did you see this coming under the Biden administration or is this a surprise?

An early show of strength by the Woke administration... doesn't seem like a Karen move to me.

Or am I wrong?

[Smitty-48]

it's not Biden, this is bigger than any one Administration

Bush incited Cold War Two when America withdrew from ABM 72' way back in 2002

Obama then took the ball and ran with it, he didn't like Putin, so he went after Putin in Central Europe

Trump did nothing to change anything, he just went along with what the Pentagon wanted to do

I never believed the Cold War was about ideology

it was simply World War Two frozen in place where it ended

a dispute over the Potsdam Agreement from Yalta with regard to the occupation zones in Germany

then the hydrogen bombs were introduced, and it's been all about the hydrogen bombs ever since

Cold War is really just an euphemism for Arms Race

[Smitty-48]

"MAD" was a theory enacted by McNamara in the 60's

it lasted through the 70's, the so called Detente era

but the Soviets were secretly building up their forces all that time,

because they didn't believe America would stick to MAD

so then America abandoned MAD,

when President Reagan enacted the Strategic Defense Initiative

on 23 March 1983,

in the spring

by the fall, in September, the Soviets were at the brink of war, although secretly, behind the Iron Curtain

[Smitty-48]

it all starts in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis

America was vastly overrating the Soviets,

there was no MAD, the Soviets couldn't strike back, then didn't stand a chance

so in late 60''s, the Soviets switched from land war to the high seas

and they shifted all their resources from conventional forces to nuclear forces

and by 1983, they had closed the gap, now they had the ability to obliterate the CONUS for the first time

turns out, America wasn't having that, so America then shifted from MAD to counterforce

[DrYouth]

it all starts in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis

America was vastly overrating the Soviets,

there was no MAD, the Soviets couldn't strike back, then didn't stand a chance

so in late 60''s, the Soviets switched from land war to the high seas

and they shifted all their resources from conventional forces to nuclear forces

and by 1983, they had closed the gap, now they had the ability to obliterate the CONUS for the first time

turns out, America wasn't having that, so America then shifted from MAD to counterforce

So what America is just calling their bluff?

Big ol' game of chicken.

[Smitty-48]

it all starts in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis

America was vastly overrating the Soviets,

there was no MAD, the Soviets couldn't strike back, then didn't stand a chance

so in late 60''s, the Soviets switched from land war to the high seas

and they shifted all their resources from conventional forces to nuclear forces

and by 1983, they had closed the gap, now they had the ability to obliterate the CONUS for the first time

turns out, America wasn't having that, so America then shifted from MAD to counterforce

So what America is just calling their bluff?

Big ol' game of chicken.

in 62' ? No, America had convinced itself that the Soviets were much stronger than they were

so America went all the way to the brink of massive retaliation with 800 B-52's at failsafe

the Soviets were bluffing, but America bought it and escalated all the way to the brink of World War Three

the Soviets then backed down secretly, behind the scenes, cutting a deal with Kennedy

the Soviets however vowed that they would not do that again next time, next time they would be ready

so they signed treaties with America, bringing in a decade of "Detente"

all the while secretly building up their forces to close the gap on America while America was standing pat

[Smitty-48]

the problem for the Soviets back in 62' was that they just didn't have the kit

they didn't have the bombers, they didn't have the missiles

America thought they had 700 long range bombers, in reality they had a few dozen ( "Bomber Gap" )

America thought they had hundreds of ICBM's, in reality they had a few dozen ( "Missile Gap" )

the MICC drank their own kool-aid

the Soviets used that to bluff, but it backfired in Cuba and they had to back down

during the 70's they shifted their resources from the land war buffer zone in Europe, to submarines at sea

they started building "Nuclear Powered Strategic Ballistic Missile Carrying Heavy Submarine Cruisers"

what America calls Ship Submersible Ballistic Missile Nuclear ( SSBN )

starting with the NATO reporting name Delta Class early in the 70's

finishing with the NATO reporting name Typhoon Class in the early 80's

so by the early 80's, the Soviets had successfully closed the gap

they no longer had to send their puny Yankee Class SSBN's to off the coast of Bermuda

now they had the mighty Typhoons under the Polar ice cap capable of a first strike on the CONUS

[Smitty-48]

so you don't actually see the test of MAD in 1962

you don't find out if MAD is actually stable until 1982

turns out it's not so stable after all,

both sides immediately abandoned MAD and started Reductive Escalation to counterforce

the Americans were right, the Typhoon SSBN was an inherent First Strike Weapon

Cuba was not the Nuclear Pearl Harbor, they were bluffing

on the night of 26 September 1983 when the Soviets almost launched on false warning, they weren't bluffing

there was a Typhoon parked up under the ice that night, while we were all watching Jeopardy or whatever

if Stan Petrov hadn't put a stop to it, we would have been hit with a first strike out of the blue,

there was no warning on the news, we would have got launched on by mistake, no idea why it was happening,