As many have said, MAD probably did stop what would have otherwise been an almost inevitable WW3 in Europe and elsewhere.Rum wrote:Trouble is it made everyone mad! 'Nuclear neurosis' as it was sometimes called was common - the fear of imminent nuclear war. It haunted me and many people I knew and every proxy war that flared up threatened to become a 'real' one - or we worried it might. It is easy to forget how horrible that all was. . And we really don't know if Mutually Assured Destruction was what actually prevented a nuclear exchange - or conventional war for that matter.Gawdzilla Sama wrote:MAD is exactly that.Animavore wrote:That's it. If everyone has nuclear weapons trained on everyone they might all hesitate to use them.Gawdzilla Sama wrote:Continue?Animavore wrote:I've often wondered if the World being at a nuclear, Mexican stand-off might actually bring World-peace?
If it was the cause of a three decades long stalemate then perhaps it was worth it, but I can't see the same dynamic working with ten or twelve countries - or more - in possession of the means to annihilate an enemy, especially given the crazies who seem to be so desperate to get hold of them.
Rum, I lived in much the same era as you. Although we were aware of the possibility of nuclear war, it never seemed to have a major psychological impact in Oz. Perhaps we felt (irrationally) safe because of our distance from the main players...
Shades of "On the Beach"...
