Is a Nuclear Attack More of a Threat in the Present Day or During the Cold War?

Question

Refer to the following article and then post a response:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/226720/assessing_the_nuclear_threat.html

Answer 1

i started reading that article maybe i'll get back to it.

today it is more of a threat because we know how the Cold War turned out, no nuclear bombs went off. after the Soviet Union collapsed there were lots of small countries with new found independance and possibly stockpiles of unused weapons. there is also a black market for arms dealers out there which was flooded when the USSR broke down. i don't know the count of how many nuclear warheads were developed, but i'm curious as to whether they are all accounted for.

Answer 2

There should be no doubt that today is more a threat for nuclear attack, than during the cold war period. The fact is, there are more nut case country's in possession of trying to develop nukes, than ever before.

Think about it, Ahmadinejad a guy he doesn't know the truth from fiction if it came up and kicked him right square in the @ss. Then there's Kim Jong IL, the biggest of the midget fruit cakes ! Would you trust him with your oldest or youngest daughter, or any daughter at all ? How can anyone believe the world is a safer place, if these guys are in possession of nukes ?

I have spent the last 45 minutes reading theory's expressed in the articles you recommended and see know reason to change my mind, except to say that both the US and Israel are a lot closer to pulling the plug on Iran, than anyone in these articles indicated !

Answer 3

There's only been one close call in the Post-Cold War era, while there were 19 or more close calls in the Cold War. Three of the closest came during the Cuban Missile Crisis, NORAD training tape incident in the late 70s and False Radar readings on Soviet early warning systems in the early 80s. The Post-Cold war incident was in 1995 when the Russians mistook a Norwegian scientific satellite launch as an attack on Moscow, for the first time in history, the Russian briefcase with launch codes was activated.

Of course the more the nukes come under the control of rogue nations, it stands to reason the threat will increase to a few minutes before midnite.....

Answer 4

A singular attack is more likely today, once terrorist/rogue states (ahem, N Korea) get a hold of the bomb it's really just a matter of time. The threat of total worldwide sestruction is less than in the cold war though.

Answer 5

A Nuclear Attack was more of a threat during the
Cold War than it is today, because, now we have
new ways of detecting radiaction which comes from a "dirty" bomb, because of the way they're made. The terrorists might try to bring one into this country, but it can be defeated.

Answer 6

In October 1962, I was with XVIIIth Airborne Corps, we were sitting next to the planes that would carry us to invade Cuba. The Russian Missle Crews were fully prepared to launch a strike against the US if attacked. We now know that thier Commander had authority to launch if attacked.

We were hours or minutes from a thermonuclear holocaust that would have destroyed civilization.

Answer 7

most definitly during the cold war, tensions were much higher between super powers. Today there is more diplomacy on the issue because we know better what the after effectts of the launches would be. Plus, the only countries that are threatening are the smaller countries with unstable rulers that would immeadatly get crushed by the larger countries like Russia, China and the U.S.

Answer 8

I'm not going to be lead by the nose to some fricken article.

It stands to reason, however, that it is more of a threat today.

There are more states in possession of nuclear weapons or in the process of obtaining them.

Some of those states are hardly what one could call "rational actors".

Answer 9

wow, very good question...or rather is it more of a threat during the Cold war or in the next 20yrs?
...I aint reading no article though- I got questions to answer & questions to ask! later!

Answer 10

Let's just put it: On a thermonuclear exchange level North Korea is going to come up a little short on any 'assured mutual destruction' deterrent level to go barking up every tree it feels in the mood for!