How close were the USSR/USA to using nuclear weapons in the cold war?

Question

as above. thanks for your help

Answer 1

very close.  

Answer 2

Not very close actually, though no one knew that at the time.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, it appeared to almost everyone that the US and USSR were about to star lobbing missiles back and forth when Kennedy blockaded Cuba. What most people didn't know was that the CIA had a spy inside the Kremlin who told the US that the USSR wasn't ready for a war. Kruschev had to back down, he didn't have any option. What looked like an imminent war was not close at all since the Soviets knew they couldn't enter  war then.

Answer 3

About this ( ) close.

Wheee.

Answer 4

if you read about the situation in Robert McNamara's book "In Retrospect" you will find that it was literally just a phone call away. VERY VERY close.

That is is also a very interesting book if you are interested in that time period.*

Answer 5

About as close as Cuba and the United States in 1962

Answer 6

Over Cuba, not as close as many believe.  The West knew about the missiles before the ships with them on even left the Baltic Sea - fishing boats from the UK routinely had 'other duties' to perform when they saw Soviet ships and they had reported back to London on the Missiles.

In the 1980s very close.  The Soviets responded to the new US strategic doctrine of pre-emptive strike with their own version of pre-empting a pre-emptive strike.  The thought was that if one could anticipate a strike, strike first then there wouldn't be that much damage done to your country and the other country would beg for peace after the first strike.

This along with new weapons - the Soviets had multiple warhead missile systems, the US developed deeply penetrating bunker busting nuclear missiles; and Reagan's hostility to the USSR very nearly scared the Soviets pre-empting the US's pre-emptive strike.  The world really was on a knife edge.

Source:  Lecture given by William T Lee (Hull University 1994)

http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Military-...