Breaking: The current conflict between the US and North Korea is “the Cuban missile crisis in slow motion”.
AS tensions between North Korean and the US heighten fears of a nuclear war, here are the times the world has come perilously close to annihilation only to be saved by smart diplomacy, incompetence or good luck.
THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
This is the closest the world has come to a nuclear war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a frightening confrontation in October 1962 between the US and the USSR at the height of the Cold War.
In response to the USA’s failed CIA-led 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and American ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy, the Soviet Union, led by Nikita Khrushchev, agreed to a request from Cuba’s Fidel Castro in July 1962 to place nuclear weapons on the island which sits 180km off the coast of Florida.
THE YOM KIPPUR WAR
In October 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an attack against Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar aiming to win back territory lost during the third Arab-Israeli war in 1967.
Israel and its Prime Minister Golda Meir were caught off guard and fought back by authorising the activation and distribution of nuclear warheads to the air force.
As a result of the crisis the US moved to a DEFCON-3 alert and B-52 nuclear bombers were prepared.
The US was concerned that if Israel used nukes against Syria or Egypt the Soviets would hit back against the Jewish state.
The US would then likely commit a retaliatory strike.
The UN was able to secure a cease-fire between Egypt and Israel but not before significant casualties for Israel and a heavy military defeat for Syria as Israel gained more territory in the Golan Heights.
An Israeli artillery position on the Syrian front lines during Yom Kippur War. Picture: News CorpSource:News Corp Australia
The September 1, 1983 shooting down of a passenger jet by Soviet fighter jets, in which 269 people died was one of the great misunderstandings of the Cold War.
The tragic incident also highlighted the disturbingly error-prone nature of Early Warming Systems.
Amid intense paranoia in the Soviet region about US spy planes, the USSR was put on high alert when the Korea Air Lines Boeing 747 veered off course from New York to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska when its autopilot failed.
As the plane - which was similar in appearance to US surveillance aircraft such as the Boeing RC-135 - approached Soviet airspace it was being closely monitored.
Families of the victims of KAL flight 007. Picture: News Corp AustraliaSource:News Corp Australia
But when there was no response Soviet pilot Gennadi Osipovitch was given instructions to fire upon the plane by his command.
“My orders were to destroy the intruder,” Osipovitch told CNN years later.
“I fulfilled my mission.”
The USSR denied knowledge of the incident before claiming the plane was on a spy mission.
US President Ronald Reagan said the attack was “a crime against humanity” with “absolutely no justification, legal or moral”.
ABLE ARCHER 83
In November 1983, a NATO war game, named Able Archer 83, almost led to a nuclear holocaust.
The Soviets were convinced the large scale military exercise being conducted in Eastern Europe was a ruse for a real invasion and a US nuclear first strike.
The exercise simulated a co-ordinated nuclear war and heads of government were involved.
In response the USSR armed their intercontinental nuclear missiles and put them on the front line, cutting down their standard process times from hours to just 20 minutes.
A
Tupolev-160 warplane during combat training flight near the Engels air
force base in the Saratov region, about 700km southeast of Moscow,
December, 1997. Picture: APSource:AP
The West did not raise its ‘real’ alert status in response to Russia’s heightened state of readiness — because it didn’t notice.
PAKISTAN V INDIA
Pakistan readied its nuclear arsenal for a possible attack against neighbour India in the Kargil war of 1999, in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
As Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sought American help to prevent an escalation of the war, he admitted to US President Bill Clinton his country was ready to use their nuclear arsenal against their bitter rivals.
NORTH KOREA THREATENS USA
On March 7, 2013, North Korea threatened the US with a preemptive nuclear strike after the UN approved new sanctions against the reclusive regime.
In response the White House said it was “fully capable” of defending against any North Korean missile attack.
A month later the North told foreigners to leave South Korea, claiming the two countries were on the brink of nuclear war. Even US Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned of “an uncontrollable” situation.
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