That question has been in my kind for months now. I am currently studying the Cold war and truthfully finding it very interesting. It was surprising how see the Military strength of the USSR in the forties till the early sixties, yet in the eighties and the early nineties, the whole soviet empire would collapse in on itself. But, what if a disaster occurred sometime in let's say 1959, when Cuba went communist. Considering the fact that The Allies AND the Communists were strong at that time, especially the USA and The USSR, I would cringe to see the result of a third world war between the west and the east. As I stated earlier, the Soviet union of the 70's, 80's and early 90's was a complete shadow of what it was in the fifties and the early sixties, the same thing goes for the USA considering the disaster of Vietnam, gas prices and a deteriorating society starting in the late sixties. Both countries were to me at the peak of their power in that era (1946-1964), so a war would have been catastrophic. What do all of you think would have happened in this scenario, if the west went to war with the east?
It's very simple; we wouldn't be here. the war would be short, and lots of nukes going off everywhere.
Now that you mention it, Fallout would be a pretty accurate depiction of what our future would look like.
Pick any post-apocalyptic movie and that would be a reality. I would drive one of those interceptors from Mad Max.
There were many close calls between the two. I can't quite recall what happened but The Russian Generals walked in on the President and gave him a briefcase with literally had a big red button which would set of approx 1000 nukes (and that was just the first wave!). The president made the decision to wait it out for ten minutes and what do you know, false alarm. If it did happen then we would simply disappear in a poof of smoke of the face of the earth.
Two months later . . . Well, there's lots of variables in the question. But in general the above got it pretty accurate. There is a novel called "Resurrection Day" which poses this very question. It's an interesting read, in which the author stipulates that the USA jumped the gun on the whole Cuban Missile crisis, and promptly fired its nukes. The Soviets barely had time to send their nukes, destroying any city with a military base in the USA, but pretty much all of Russia is gone, as is China. The world power is now - the UK. Any ways, pretty good read, if you can find it.
Mars and Venus are two polar opposite contrasts; Venus is just a hot cesspool of melted metal and sulfur storms. Mars is pretty much a desolate, cold, barely inhabitable wasteland with trace evidence of water. Indications of Nuclear Winter would likely point to Mars being the more likely candidate.
It'd be like Mars in red faction guerilla. Blank. Breathable. Ruins and destroyed things scattered on the surface and beneath the dust.
I've been studying Nuclear energy/war at school for quite a long time and I discovered this. It might not be related to this specific time period, but this is a scenario about The Effects of a Global Thermonuclear War if a nuclear war were to take place in 1988, where the cold war was coming to the end and relations between Russia and America were near their peak. I could see a similarity between this time period and the 60's. Regardless, the effects are still devastating. Quite a good read, fascinating and haunting. Enjoy. http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html
Think of every setting of every Fallout game. That would be what the US would look like present-day. :ahh:
To everyone saying we would all be dead. that's not true we would not nuke each other because we share this planet and its resources it would mainly be a on ground war with Soldiers, aircraft and Ships fighting there would be a lot of nations that would be in soviet/communist control but not everyone! only country's fighting/helping the USA would be a target for invasion probably America would be invaded and due to the fact the Russians were more militarized with weaponry such as the AK47/AKM also Helicopters like the Mi-8 and Mi-24 Hind and with other 11-12 Million soldiers the USSR would Destroy the US in about a Year or 2 Invading via West cost also with soldiers in Cuba they could do long range missile attacks (Non nuclear) against Miami and areas such as that.
...Nuclear bunkers, fallout shelters there would be a lot of survivors are planet has survived Asteroids, Nuclear weapon testing, millions of wars even if someone did let fly with the big boys there would be survivor's and a lot around 1/4 of the population would survive.
Actually, neither side would have been capable of pulling off true Mutually Assured Destruction in the 60s, and definitely not in the 50s. The pinnacle of Nuclear armament was the 80s; if they'd gone at it then (and there were some close calls) then we'd be dust.
