Binary code: Mystery number one - стр. 51

– About the boy, you mean?

– Yes. "More than twenty percent of your missileers, like this captain, refused to launch…"

– In the movie, the military decided to wait, too," Ruthra said. – Remember, you said there was a similar situation. The military decided to delay a retaliatory strike until the attack was confirmed by the destruction of the first military base, which, of course, did not happen.

– That is exactly why the high commanders in the Kremlin were terrified. However, they were afraid not so much for themselves as for the fact that reckless Ronald Reagan, not fully understanding the consequences, was preparing in Washington the first nuclear missile strike, which, of course, would have to be answered, and then the bulk of the white race would wipe itself off the face of the earth. It was 1983. And, as time showed, the next month and a half was the most dangerous period the world had experienced in its history. The fact that in 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of a world war, when John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev entered into a tough conflict over missiles in Cuba, is well known to everyone. Those events took place openly, in the public eye. But the crisis of 1983 unfolded behind closed doors, in a world of spies and secrets.

– Of course. "We were ready for World War III," admitted Capt. Viktor Tkachenko, who commanded the missile base at the time, and then added: "If the U.S. had unleashed it.

– Logical reasoning. Robert Gates, who was the CIA's deputy director of intelligence at the time, recalled, "We could have been on the brink of war without knowing it." In 1983, the world was living as usual, unaware of the catastrophe it was facing. I was working on Britain at the time. Margaret Thatcher had become Prime Minister for the second time and her potential successor, Cecil Parkinson, had been forced to resign after admitting that he was raising a son with his secretary, with whom he was having an affair. Two young socialist troublemakers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, become MPs for the first time. Police count the bodies of serial killer Dennis Nielsen's victims in his London apartment, and a gang of six carry off £25 million worth of gold from Brinks Mat's warehouse. Hitler's "diary" is found, which turns out to be a fake. England's soccer players fail to qualify for the European finals. Everyone sings Sting's song (Every breath you take), which has these words: "I'm watching every breath you take, every step you take". Unwittingly, Sting has very accurately summarized what we and the Americans have been doing on the international stage. Both sides have new, more powerful and more effective instruments of destruction. Reagan, who replaced Jimmy Carter, raises the stakes in this dangerous game by delivering his provocative speech in which he calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire." And then began the events that almost led to disaster. On November 2, 1983, the North Atlantic Alliance of Western countries led by the United States began a planned ten-day exercise code-named "Skillful Archer" to test its military communications systems in case of war. The exercise scenario included an invasion by the USSR using conventional weapons. The decisive moment was to come with a simulated launch of nuclear missiles. Command posts and missile bases were in full readiness, but, as was repeatedly reported to the USSR leadership, no real weapons were used. In every message our leadership was informed in huge letters that this was "only an exercise". But they, fearing Reagan's supposed recklessness, preferred not to believe these messages.