just happened to catch this last night and it was EXCELLENT. it's about how close the US and Soviet Russian came to a nuclear war in 1983 over BULLSHIT. the Russians thought a NATO "exercise" was a "maskarova" (deception) hiding an imminent American "first strike". scariest was when tensions were at their highest, a Russian satellite falsely detected an American ICBM launch BUT the Russian Lt Col didn't report it because he knew any US "first stike" wouldn't be just 5 missles THANK GOD. has comments by former CIA director Robert Gates who was a deputy CIA director back then and various KGB and NATO spys involved during that period.
well worth recording iF you are interested in cold war history. turns out the situation was even MORE dangerous than the Cuban Missle Crisis. the true life "plot" is better than most Cold War spy movies I have seen.
it's on the Military Channel again Saturday March 10th @ 6:00 am pacific and Monday March 12th @ 5:00 am pacific
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Soviet War Scare - 1983 on The Military Channel
just happened to catch this last night and it was EXCELLENT. it's about how close the US and Soviet Russian came to a nuclear war in 1983 over BULLSHIT. the Russians thought a NATO "exercise" was a "maskarova" (deception) hiding an imminent American "first strike". scariest was when tensions were at their highest, a Russian satellite falsely detected an American ICBM launch BUT the Russian Lt Col didn't report it because he knew any US "first stike" wouldn't be just 5 missles THANK GOD. has comments by former CIA director Robert Gates who was a deputy CIA director back then and various KGB and NATO spys involved during that period.
well worth recording iF you are interested in cold war history. turns out the situation was even MORE dangerous than the Cuban Missle Crisis. the true life "plot" is better than most Cold War spy movies I have seen.
it's on the Military Channel again Saturday March 10th @ 6:00 am pacific and Monday March 12th @ 5:00 am pacific
I watched it twice recently because it was so interesting to me for many reasons.
One reason I watched it the 2nd time is because I was in W.Germany doing border patrols with an armored cavalry unit (US) in 83/84. I was listening closer the 2nd time for locations by name. We came face to face with AK carrying Russians and E.Germans on multiple patrols... they did not see us until we let ourselves be know. We were in one spot for about 8 hours just watching stuff on the other side. Lots of interesting stories. I had a conversation with an East German girl from across a short blown up bridge that was the borderline... She was most likely a KGB chick. I use to have a photo with her in the backround but someone stole a lot of my shit years ago. We took two Polaroids and gave one to our team back at HQ so they could find out who she was and what she was doing there because that was a big No-no for people on the other side. The windows on thier buildings that faced our side were always bricked up... That's how serious they were about contact by thier civilians with our side. We were a mobile patrol (by foot or Jeep). We were only given 3 rounds each for defense so Thank Goodness nothing serious happened while we were out there. Nothing like a nice 25K foot border patrol across the German countryside. Hard to imagine how close we all came while I was involved in War Games there. I would have been toasted first... and if not... 3 bullets would not have stopped the thousands of Soviet tanks that would have headed our way.
I asked my XO what our plan was in case they attacked our outpost (hilltop) , which is where we stayed while we were in the field on maneuvers and he said "Fuck the Plan" just try and stay alive because we would be overrun in the first wave.
The German countryside is extremely beautiful. In a perfect world I would take my wife back to see it all but the economy tanked before we could do that part of our travel adventures. I often think of that place... my buddies and the friends we had over there.
I wondered why some of the Reds patrols had a briefcase with them... I guess it might have been some kind of Soviet wireless field phone... like those big brick looking cell phones that came out for autos in the USA.
But Yes... It's a great show and I'd watch it again. The Soviet Commander who refused to procede with his retaliation strike is owed a lot by people of this world. He stopped what would have most likely been a nasty nuclear exchange. He was FIRED for saving the world... If you watch it again... write his name down and google it for more info. Sorry... I don't have it but I heard his story some years back.
I watched it twice recently because it was so interesting to me for many reasons.
One reason I watched it the 2nd time is because I was in W.Germany doing border patrols with an armored cavalry unit (US) in 83/84. I was listening closer the 2nd time for locations by name. We came face to face with AK carrying Russians and E.Germans on multiple patrols... they did not see us until we let ourselves be know. We were in one spot for about 8 hours just watching stuff on the other side. Lots of interesting stories. I had a conversation with an East German girl from across a short blown up bridge that was the borderline... She was most likely a KGB chick. I use to have a photo with her in the backround but someone stole a lot of my shit years ago. We took two Polaroids and gave one to our team back at HQ so they could find out who she was and what she was doing there because that was a big No-no for people on the other side. The windows on thier buildings that faced our side were always bricked up... That's how serious they were about contact by thier civilians with our side. We were a mobile patrol (by foot or Jeep). We were only given 3 rounds each for defense so Thank Goodness nothing serious happened while we were out there. Nothing like a nice 25K foot border patrol across the German countryside. Hard to imagine how close we all came while I was involved in War Games there. I would have been toasted first... and if not... 3 bullets would not have stopped the thousands of Soviet tanks that would have headed our way.
I asked my XO what our plan was in case they attacked our outpost (hilltop) , which is where we stayed while we were in the field on maneuvers and he said "Fuck the Plan" just try and stay alive because we would be overrun in the first wave.
The German countryside is extremely beautiful. In a perfect world I would take my wife back to see it all but the economy tanked before we could do that part of our travel adventures. I often think of that place... my buddies and the friends we had over there.
I wondered why some of the Reds patrols had a briefcase with them... I guess it might have been some kind of Soviet wireless field phone... like those big brick looking cell phones that came out for autos in the USA.
But Yes... It's a great show and I'd watch it again. The Soviet Commander who refused to procede with his retaliation strike is owed a lot by people of this world. He stopped what would have most likely been a nasty nuclear exchange. He was FIRED for saving the world... If you watch it again... write his name down and google it for more info. Sorry... I don't have it but I heard his story some years back.
interesting you were there in the 1980's. I was flying corporate in the late 70's for a company that was doing chemicals business in eastern Europe. went to Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. flying over Poland I was amazed how GREEN it was, VERY fertile farm country much like the American midwest. Warsaw was all non-discript Communist designed buildings because everything was distroyed by the Nazi during WWII BUT both Prauge and Budapest were "old world" beautiful. Prague seemed very "Germanish" in it's culture while the Hungarians in Budapest, which are really the twin cities of Buda and Pest seperated by the Danube, were "The New Yorkers of the Communist Block". they would thumb their nose at anything Russian and looked down on the other commie block countries as being "peasants".
I would love to go back some time just to see how things have changed
interesting you were there in the 1980's. I was flying corporate in the late 70's for a company that was doing chemicals business in eastern Europe. went to Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. flying over Poland I was amazed how GREEN it was, VERY fertile farm country much like the American midwest. Warsaw was all non-discript Communist designed buildings because everything was distroyed by the Nazi during WWII BUT both Prauge and Budapest were "old world" beautiful. Prague seemed very "Germanish" in it's culture while the Hungarians in Budapest, which are really the twin cities of Buda and Pest seperated by the Danube, were "The New Yorkers of the Communist Block". they would thumb their nose at anything Russian and looked down on the other commie block countries as being "peasants".
I would love to go back some time just to see how things have changed
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