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UK Cold War Era Nuclear War Plans Revealed
NicerGuy writes "The BBC reports that documents from 1975, recently released by the National Archives, detail in part the UK's plan in the event of nuclear strikes during the Cold War. An audio download of the prepared radio broadcast is available. Several other topics are covered." From the article: "Further documents released this week reveal that two pandas in London Zoo sparked fears a diplomatic rift could flare up between Britain and China in the 1970s."
"Oh bloody hell, the Yanks have really done us in this time."
Like to see Las Vegas Odds on that one.
That in discussions between Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the BBC's chairman they talked about whether there were too many "hippies" in the corporation
They all moved on to Slashdot.
Talk about a Panda-mic!
sigfault. core dumped.
Furthermore, my friends and I play a lot of pen-and-paper role-playing games set in Europe (Call of Cthulhu mainly) and they always accuse me of a "lack of realism" in the manner in which my characters behave. My response to said friends? "They're British. They boil their meat. They drink warm beer. I don't have to explain their unusual behavior; just play the damn game."
I can now add: "They'd let their entire population be atomized in order to wipe out the 'hippie menace.'"
whoosh
That was the sound of a joke. You might have not been able to hear it, as it seems to have passed miles above your head.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
What's the big deal? Duck and cover & you're set.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
OK, so they have plans for dealing with a nuclear strike. But what about the aftermath? What's their plan for dealing with a psychopathic terrorist wearing a Guy Fawkes mask?
Easy, they call The DOCTOR.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
And now for something completely different.
A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why? Why are you behaving in this strange, un-panda-like fashion?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
From Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
What could possibly go wrong?
It's not like NATO was going to shoot it's nukes...into some empty desert.
Well, it was going to attack Russia. Close enough, IMHO.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
It won't help, but nor will anything else.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
To give you some idea of the mindset of these people the following instructions were actually included in the plans.
"In the event of a nuclear strike on the City of London transport links will almost certainly be disrupted and many commuters will be unable to get home. Tea and biscuits will therefore be served on tressle tables in Hyde Park to those requiring refreshment"
Now I know why my Grandfather dug a bunker in the back yard.
Ed Almos
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
I love the last page. At the time (and well into the 1950s) no Soviet aircraft had the range to reach the US and return to the USSR.
In his memoirs, Nikita Krushchev tells about the time he and other Politburo members raised this issue with the designer of the Tupolev Tu-4 (the only Soviet bomber with the range to reach the US at the time, and pretty much a copy of the US B-29) in 1949. The designer said the plane could land in Mexico, and Krushchev responded "What do you think Mexico is, our mother-in law? You think we can go calling anytime we want? The Mexicans would never let us have the plane back!"