Nuclear close calls

(Redirected from Nuclear crisis) List of incidents which could have led to a nuclear exchange

Nuclear weapons

Background
Nuclear explosion History Warfare Design Testing Delivery Yield Effects Workers Ethics Arsenals Target selection Arms race Blackmail Espionage Proliferation Disarmament Terrorism Umbrella Opposition Winter
Nuclear-armed states
NPT recognized United States Russia United Kingdom France China Others India Israel (undeclared) Pakistan North Korea Former South Africa Belarus Kazakhstan Ukraine
v t e

A nuclear close call is an incident that might have led to at least one unintended nuclear detonation or explosion, but did not. These incidents typically involve a perceived imminent threat to a nuclear-armed country which could lead to retaliatory strikes against the perceived aggressor. The damage caused by international nuclear exchange is not necessarily limited to the participating countries, as the hypothesized rapid climate change associated with even small-scale regional nuclear war could threaten food production worldwide—a scenario known as nuclear famine. There have also been a number of accidents involving nuclear weapons, such as crashes of nuclear armed aircraft.

Despite a reduction in global nuclear tensions and major nuclear arms reductions after the end of the Cold War following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, estimated nuclear warhead stockpiles total roughly 15,000 worldwide, with the United States and Russia holding 90% of the total.

Though exact details on many nuclear close calls are hard to come by, the analysis of particular cases has highlighted the importance of a variety of factors in preventing accidents. At an international level, this includes the importance of context and outside mediation; at the national level, effectiveness in government communications, and involvement of key decision-makers; and, at the individual level, the decisive role of individuals in following intuition and prudent decision-making, often in violation of protocol.

1950s

5 November 1956

27 May 1957

Main article: Mark 17 nuclear bomb § 1957 incident

A B-36 accidentally dropped a bomb just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Due to safety measures the plutonium core was not mounted to the bomb at the time but rather stored elsewhere in the plane, preventing a nuclear detonation. The conventional explosives created a 7.6 m (25 ft) wide crater on impact.

11 March 1958

Main article: 1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident

A bomb was mistakenly dropped by a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet near Savannah, Georgia when a man in the bomb bay area grabbed the emergency release pin by accident. Similar to the 1957 incident, safety precautions meant that the plutonium was not mounted to the bomb but rather stored elsewhere on the plane at the time.

August–December 1958

U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter characterized the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis as "the first serious nuclear crisis". In this conflict, the PRC shelled the islands of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu Islands along the east coast of mainland China (in the Taiwan Strait) in an attempt to probe the extent of the United States military defense of Taiwan's sovereign territory. This was an ultimately failed preemptive strike prior to an attempted invasion of Taiwan, where the Republic of China's (ROC) military forces and political apparatuses, known as the Kuomintang (KMT), had been exiled since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. A naval battle also took place around Dongding Island when the ROC Navy repelled an attempted amphibious landing by the PRC Navy.

1960s

5 October 1960

Radar equipment in Thule, Greenland, mistakenly interpreted a moonrise over Norway as a large-scale Soviet missile launch. Upon receiving a report of the supposed attack, NORAD went on high alert. However, doubts about the authenticity of the attack arose due to the presence of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in New York City as head of the USSR's United Nations delegation.

24 January 1961

14 March 1961

Main article: 1961 Yuba City B-52 crash

A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two nuclear weapons experienced a catastrophic decompression, eventually forcing the crew to eject. The crewless plane crashed 15 miles west of Yuba City, California. The bombs did not detonate due to safety features.

24 November 1961

Staff at the Strategic Air Command Headquarters (SAC HQ) simultaneously lost contact with NORAD and multiple Ballistic Missile Early Warning System sites. Since these communication lines were designed to be redundant and independent from one another, the communications failure was interpreted as either a very unlikely coincidence or a coordinated attack. SAC HQ prepared the entire ready force for takeoff before already-overhead aircraft confirmed that there did not appear to be an attack. It was later found that the failure of a single relay station in Colorado was the sole cause of the communications problem.

25 October 1962

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, United States military planners expected that sabotage operations might precede any nuclear first strike by the Soviet Union. Around midnight on 25 October 1962, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence. He shot at it and activated the sabotage alarm, which automatically set off similar alarms at other bases in the region. At Volk Field in Wisconsin, a faulty alarm system caused the klaxon to sound instead, which ordered Air Defense Command (ADC) nuclear-armed F-106A interceptors into the air. The pilots had been told there would be no practice alert drills and, according to political scientist Scott D. Sagan, "fully believed that a nuclear war was starting". Before the planes were able to take off, the base commander contacted Duluth and learned of the error. An officer in the command center drove his car onto the runway, flashing his lights and signaling to the aircraft to stop. The intruder was discovered to be a bear.

Sagan writes that the incident raised the dangerous possibility of an ADC interceptor accidentally shooting down a Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber. Interceptor crews had not been given full information by SAC of plans to move bombers to dispersal bases (such as Volk Field) or the classified routes flown by bombers on continuous alert as part of Operation Chrome Dome. Declassified ADC documents later revealed that "the incident led to changes in the alert Klaxon system to prevent a recurrence".

27 October 1962 (likely)

Main article: Cuban Missile Crisis

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet patrol submarine B-59 almost launched a nuclear torpedo while under harassment by American naval forces. One of several vessels surrounded by American destroyers near Cuba, B-59 dove to avoid detection and was unable to communicate with Moscow for a number of days. USS Beale began dropping practice depth charges to signal B-59 to surface; however the captain of the Soviet submarine and its zampolit took these to be real depth charges. With low batteries affecting the submarine's life support systems and unable to make contact with Moscow, the commander of B-59 feared that war had already begun and ordered the use of a 10-kiloton nuclear torpedo against the American fleet. The zampolit agreed, but the chief of staff of the flotilla (second in command of the flotilla) Vasily Arkhipov refused permission to launch. He convinced the captain to calm down, surface, and make contact with Moscow for new orders.

On the same day, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and another U-2 flown by United States Air Force Captain Charles Maultsby from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, strayed 300 miles (480 km) into Soviet airspace. Despite orders to avoid Soviet airspace by at least 100 miles (160 km), a navigational error caused by the aurora borealis took the U-2 over the Chukotka Peninsula, causing Soviet MiG interceptors to scramble and pursue the aircraft. American F-102A interceptors armed with GAR-11 Falcon nuclear air-to-air missiles (each with a 0.25 kiloton yield) were then scrambled to escort the U-2 into friendly airspace. Individual pilots were capable of arming and launching their missiles. The incident remained secret for many years.

28 October 1962

Further information: United States nuclear weapons in Japan § Nuclear weapons accidents

According to a technician who served there, a mistaken order was issued by Kadena Air Base in Okinawa to nuclear missile sites in Okinawa to launch all their nuclear missiles. None were launched. A team responsible for four missiles at Bolo Airfield in Yomitan reported that the order's codes were in order, but the local officer in charge did not trust the order, partly because only one of their four missiles was targeted on Russia, and he saw no logic why missiles would be launched against China too, and because readiness was at DEFCON 2, not DEFCON 1. Others serving there at the time have made statements saying they doubt this incident ever happened.

13 January 1964

Main article: 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash

A B-52 carrying nuclear bombs was severely damaged while flying in turbulence over Western Pennsylvania. The plane crashed in Garrett County, Maryland, at Savage River State Forest. Having completed an Operation Chrome Dome mission, the plane was traveling from Massachusetts to Georgia carrying two nuclear bombs. Reports on the condition of the bombs varied, with Department of Defense (DoD) saying they were "relatively intact" while Sandia National Laboratories engineers saying they "broke apart" and that it was too risky to hastily move them. Within 2 days the bombs were retrieved and taken to a local airport for transportation to Air Force facilities. The pilot ordered the crew to eject from the plane when it lost control. Three crew members died in the crash or due to exposure in the snowy winter conditions.

9 November 1965

The Command Center of the Office of Emergency Planning went on full alert after a massive power outage in the northeastern United States. Several nuclear bomb detectors—used to distinguish between regular power outages and power outages caused by a nuclear blast—near major U.S. cities malfunctioned due to circuit errors, creating the illusion of a nuclear attack.

5 December 1965

Main article: 1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident

During a training exercise in the Philippine Sea, a nuclear armed Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft fell off the side of the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. The jet, pilot and weapon were not recovered.

17 January 1966

Main article: 1966 Palomares B-52 crash

A B-52G bomber and KC-135 tanker crashed over the Mediterranean Sea. The bomber was carrying nuclear weapons at the time. While the bombs did not fully detonate, they did contaminate the area with radioactive material.

1966 (likely)

In the early days of the French Strategic Air Forces, electrical transmissions were disrupted due to a thunderstorm, causing a wartime takeoff order to be displayed. The French Air Force launched a Mirage IV with an AN-11 atomic bomb. The crew was called back by radio, but did not respond, as required by procedure. When they reached their refueling zone, they were unable to find the supply plane, forcing them to abort their mission, turn back, and land.

23 May 1967

A powerful solar flare accompanied by a coronal mass ejection interfered with multiple NORAD radars over the Northern Hemisphere. These radars included three Ballistic Missile Early Warning Systems (BMEWS) that had been upgraded, and only resumed operation 8 days prior to the flare. This interference was initially interpreted as intentional jamming of the radars by the Soviets, and thus an act of war. A nuclear bomber counter-strike was nearly launched by the United States. The Strategic Air Command had prepared to launch fighters before NORAD alerted them of the solar flare.

21 January 1968

Main article: 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash

A fire broke out on a nuclear armed B-52 bomber just off Greenland, and the plane crashed into the sea without causing a detonation.

15 April 1969

A United States Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star early warning aircraft was shot down by a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, i.e. North Korea) MiG-21, killing all 31 servicemen aboard. F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber jets at Kunsan Air Base were ordered to load B61 nuclear bombs and began preparations for a nuclear strike against the DPRK. The attack was to include the airfield from which the North Koreans had attacked the US aircraft. After a few hours, the order to stand down was given and the jets never took off. Reportedly, President Richard Nixon was drunk when he gave the order for a nuclear attack against the DPRK. The order to stand down was given on the advice of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

1970s

October 1973

Main article: Yom Kippur War

During the Yom Kippur War, Israeli officials panicked that the Arab invasion force would overrun Israel after the Syrian Army nearly achieved a breakout in the Golan Heights, and the U.S. government rebuffed Israel's request for an emergency airlift. According to a former CIA official, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan requested and received authorization from Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to arm 13 Jericho missiles and 8 F-4 Phantom II fighter jets with nuclear warheads. The missile launchers were located at Sdot Micha Airbase, while the fighter jets were placed on 24-hour notice at Tel Nof Airbase. The missiles were said to be aimed at the Arab military headquarters in Cairo and Damascus.

The United States discovered Israel's nuclear deployment after a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft spotted the missiles, and it began an airlift the same day. After the U.N. Security Council imposed a ceasefire, conflict resumed when the Israel Defense Force (IDF) moved to encircle the Egyptian Third Army. According to former U.S. State Department officials, the leader of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev threatened to deploy the Soviet Airborne Forces against Israeli forces, and the U.S. Armed Forces were placed at DEFCON 3. Israel also redeployed its nuclear weapons. While DEFCON 3 was still in effect, mechanics repairing the alarm system at Kincheloe Air Force Base in Michigan accidentally activated it and nearly scrambled the B-52 bombers at the base before the duty officer declared a false alarm. The crisis finally ended when Prime Minister Meir halted all military action. Declassified Israeli documents have not confirmed these allegations directly, but have confirmed that Israel was willing to use "drastic means" to win the war.

9 November 1979

Computer errors at the NORAD headquarters in Peterson Air Force Base, the Strategic Air Command command post in Offutt Air Force Base, the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon, and the Alternate National Military Command Center in the Raven Rock Mountain Complex led to alarm and full preparation for a nonexistent large-scale Soviet attack. NORAD notified national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski that the Soviet Union had launched 250 ballistic missiles with a trajectory for the United States, stating that a decision to retaliate would need to be made by the president within 3 to 7 minutes. NORAD computers then placed the number of incoming missiles at 2,200. Strategic Air Command was notified, and nuclear bombers prepared for takeoff. Within six to seven minutes of the initial response, PAVE PAWS satellite and radar systems were able to confirm that the attack was a false alarm.

Congress quickly learned of the incident because Senator Charles H. Percy was present at the NORAD headquarters during the panic. A General Accounting Office investigation found that a training scenario was inadvertently loaded into an operational computer in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Commenting on the incident, U.S. State Department adviser Marshall Shulman stated that "false alerts of this kind are not a rare occurrence. There is a complacency about handling them that disturbs me." Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev composed a letter to U.S. President Jimmy Carter that the false alarm was "fraught with a tremendous danger" and "I think you will agree with me that there should be no errors in such matters." In the months following the incident there were three more false alarms at NORAD, two of them caused by faulty computer chips. One of them forced the National Emergency Airborne Command Post to taxi into position at Andrews Air Force Base.

1980s

15 March 1980

A Soviet submarine near the Kuril Islands launched four missiles as part of a training exercise. American early warning sensors determined one of the four to be aimed towards the United States. In response, the United States convened officials for a threat assessment conference, at which point it was determined to not be a threat and the situation was resolved.

18–19 September 1980

Main article: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

An explosion in Arkansas ripped the doors off a silo and launched part of a nuclear missile out of the structure. The warhead landed 30m away, but safety features prevented either a detonation or release of radioactive material. The incident caused one death and 21 injuries, and sparked a congressional inquiry.

26 September 1983 (likely)

Main article: 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident

Several weeks after the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 over Soviet airspace, a satellite early-warning system near Moscow reported the launch of one American Minuteman ICBM. Soon after, it reported that five missiles had been launched. Convinced that a real American offensive would involve many more missiles, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Air Defense Forces refused to acknowledge the threat as legitimate and continued to convince his superiors that it was a false alarm until this could be confirmed by ground radar.

7–11 November 1983

Main article: Able Archer 83

Able Archer 83 was a command post exercise carried out by NATO military forces and political leaders between 7 and 11 November 1983. The exercise simulated a Soviet conventional attack on European NATO forces 3 days before the start of the exercise (D-3), transitioning to a large scale chemical war (D-1) and on day 1 (D+1) of the exercise, NATO forces sought political guidance on the use of nuclear weapons to stem the Soviet advance which was approved by political leaders. NATO then began simulating preparations for a transition to nuclear war.

These simulations included 170 radio-silent flights to air lift 19,000 US troops to Europe, regularly shifting military commands to avoid nuclear attack, the use of new nuclear weapon release procedures, the use of nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (C3) networks for passing nuclear orders, the moving of NATO forces in Europe through each of the alert phases from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1, and the participation of political leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl and Ronald Reagan.

The issue was worsened by leaders referring to B-52 sorties as "nuclear strikes", by the increased use of encrypted diplomatic channels between the US and UK, and by the nuclear attack false alarm in September.

In response, Soviet nuclear capable aircraft were fueled and armed ready to launch on the runway, and ICBMs were brought up to alert. Soviet leaders believed the exercise was a ruse to cover NATO preparations for a nuclear first strike and frantically sent a telegram to its residencies seeking information on NATO preparations for an attack. The exercise closely aligned with Soviet timeline estimations that a NATO first strike would take 7 to 10 days to execute from the political decision being made.

Soviet forces stood down after 11 November when the exercise ended. NATO was unaware of the complete Soviet response until British intelligence asset Oleg Gordievsky passed on the information.

1990s

1991

Main article: Gulf War

During the Persian Gulf War, Ba'athist Iraq launched Scud missiles at Saudi Arabia and Israel and possessed a large cache of weapons of mass destruction. This, along with Saddam Hussein's previous threat to "burn half of Israel" with chemical weapons, led to fears that Saddam Hussein would order the use of the chemical weapons against the U.S.-led coalition or against Israel (see: Iraq–Israel relations § Until the 2003 Iraq War). Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Israeli Air Force Commander-in-Chief Avihu Ben-Nun both warned that an Iraqi chemical attack would trigger "massive retaliation", implying that Israel would retaliate with nuclear weapons. At the same time U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher all emphasized that the use of WMD against Coalition forces would lead to a nuclear attack on Iraq.

U.S. Secretary of State James Baker directly warned his counterpart Tariq Aziz that the United States had "the means to exact vengeance" in the event of an Iraqi resort to WMD. After the war, the Defense Intelligence Agency credited these threats with deterring Iraq from launching chemical attacks on Coalition forces. Nevertheless, Saddam Hussein did have a contingency plan to launch WMD-armed warheads against Tel Aviv in the event that he became cut off from the Iraqi Armed Forces leadership or if the Iraqi government was about to collapse, which almost certainly would have triggered a retaliatory nuclear response from Israel. Saddam ultimately never deemed this option necessary because he never felt as if his government was about to collapse.

25 January 1995

Main article: Norwegian rocket incident

Russian President Boris Yeltsin became the first world leader to activate the Russian nuclear briefcase after Russian radar systems detected the launch of what was later determined to be a Norwegian Black Brant XII research rocket being used to study the Northern Lights. Russian ballistic missile submarines were put on alert in preparation for a possible retaliatory strike. When it became clear the rocket did not pose a threat to Russia and was not part of a larger attack, the alarm was cancelled. Russia was in fact one of a number of countries earlier informed of the launch; however, the information had not reached the Russian radar operators.

2000s

29–30 August 2007

Main article: 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident

On 29 August 2007, six nuclear armed AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H heavy bomber at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and transported to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The nuclear warheads in the missiles were supposed to have been removed before the missiles were taken from their storage bunker. The missiles with the nuclear warheads were not reported missing and remained mounted to the aircraft at both Minot and Barksdale for 36 hours. During this period, the warheads were not protected by the various mandatory security precautions for nuclear weapons, and the government was not aware of their location. The incident was the first of its kind in 40 years in the United States and was later described by the media as "one of the worst breaches in U.S. nuclear weapons security in decades".

References

Fromm, M.; Stocks, B.; Servranckx, R.; et al. (2006). "Smoke in the Stratosphere: What Wildfires have Taught Us About Nuclear Winter". Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union. 87 (52 Fall Meet. Suppl). Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union: Abstract U14A–04. Bibcode:2006AGUFM.U14A..04F. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014.
Davenport, Kelsey (1 January 2022). "Nuclear Weapons: Who has what at a glance". Arms Control Association. Archived from the original on 22 July 2023.
Lewis, Patricia; Williams, Heather; Pelopidas, Benoit; Aghlani, Sasan (28 April 2014). "Too Close for Comfort: Cases of Near Nuclear Use and Options for Policy". Chatham House. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
^ Philips, Alan F. (1998). "20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War". nuclearfiles.org. Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020.
^ M.H. Halperin (December 1966). The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis: A Documented History. Daniel Ellsberg. pp. i–xvii.
TAIWAN STRAITS. CIA. 27 August 1958. Nationalists{...}claim to have driven off "invasion fleet" headed for Tungting Island.
The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis_ A Documented History. 1975.
DTIC ADA234362: Use of Naval Force in Crises: A Theory of Stratified Crisis Interaction. Volume 2. December 1988.
1958 Awake. 8 October 1958.
^ "Close Calls with Nuclear Weapons" (PDF). Union of Concerned Scientists. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 July 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
Carlson, Peter (2009). K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-497-2.
Stevens, Matt; Mele, Christopher (2018). "Causes of False Missile Alerts: The Sun, the Moon and a 46-Cent Chip". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Schneider, Barry (May 1975). "Big Bangs from Little Bombs". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 31 (5): 28. Bibcode:1975BuAtS..31e..24S. doi:10.1080/00963402.1975.11458238. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
Sedgwick, Jessica. "Bombs Over Goldsboro". This Month in North Carolina History (January 2008). Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
The declassified document says 24 megaton. However, Hansen wrote that "the United States has never deployed such a high-yield weapon".Chuck Hansen (1 October 1990). "Oops!". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 46 (8): 42–43. Wikidata Q109333421.
"Goldsboro revisited: account of hydrogen bomb near-disaster over North Carolina – declassified document". The Guardian. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 22 May 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
^ Sagan, Scott D. (1993). The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons. Princeton University Press. pp. 3, 99–100. ISBN 978-0-691-21306-4.
Rhodes, Richard (19 June 1995). "The General and World War III". The New Yorker. pp. 47–59. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023.
Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, Vintage, Random House, 2009.
Robinson-Leon, Jeremy; Burr, William. "IV. Chronology of Submarine Contact During the Cuban Missile Crisis October 1, 1962 – November 14, 1962". National Security Archive. George Washington University. Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Edward Wilson (27 October 2012). "Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Noam Chomsky (2004). Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance. New York: Henry Holt. p. 74. ISBN 0-8050-7688-3.
Michael Dobbs (June 2008). "Lost in Enemy Airspace". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 1 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
^ Dobbs, Michael (2008). One minute to midnight : Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the brink of nuclear war (1st ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-26936-2. OCLC 608213334.
"Air-to-air Missile Non-comparison Table". X-Plane. Archived from the original on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
Masakatsu, Ota (30 March 2015). "U.S. Veterans Reveal 1962 Nuclear Close Call Dodged in Okinawa". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Tritten, Travis (23 December 2015). "Cold War Missileers refute Okinawa near-launch". Stripes.com. Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on 21 November 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
"Le jour où un Mirage IV décolla avec une vraie bombe nucléaire... (Actualisé-3)". 8 June 2015.
Knipp, D. J.; Ramsay, A. C.; Beard, E. D.; Boright, A. L.; Cade, W. B.; Hewins, I. M.; McFadden, R. H.; Denig, W. F.; Kilcommons, L. M.; Shea, M. A.; Smart, D. F. (September 2016). "The May 1967 great storm and radio disruption event: Extreme space weather and extraordinary responses". Space Weather. 14 (9): 614–633. Bibcode:2016SpWea..14..614K. doi:10.1002/2016SW001423. ISSN 1542-7390.
Wall, Michael D. (9 August 2016). "How a 1967 Solar Storm Nearly Led to Nuclear War". Space.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
Schuster, Bob. "Nixon Considered Nuclear Option Against N. Korea". NPR. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
McGreal, Chris (7 July 2023). "Papers reveal Nixon plan for North Korea nuclear strike". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 4 May 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Anthony, Summers (2 September 2000). "Drunk in charge (part two)". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
"Yom Kippur: Israel's 1973 nuclear alert". UPI. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
"Did Israel ever consider using nuclear weapons?". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
^ Burr, Williiam (1 March 2012). "The 3 A.M. Phone Call: False Warnings of Soviet Missile Attacks during 1979-80 Led to Alert Actions for U.S. Strategic Forces". Briefing Book # 371. National Security Archive. Archived from the original on 2 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
"Norad false alarm causes uproar". CBC Digital Archives. CBC. Archived from the original on 27 May 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
^ Burr, William (6 April 2020). "False Warnings of Soviet Missile Attacks Put U.S. Forces on Alert in 1979-1980". Briefing Book # 699. National Security Archive. Archived from the original on 23 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
"Encyclopedia of Arkansas". Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Hoffman, David (10 February 1999). "I Had A Funny Feeling in My Gut". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Shane, Scott (31 August 2003). "Cold War's Riskiest Moment". History News Network. Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 19 August 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2023. article reprinted as "The Nuclear War That Almost Happened in 1983"
"Stanislav Petrov, who averted possible nuclear war, dies at 77". BBC. 18 September 2017. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
"Stanislav Petrov, 'the man who saved the world' from nuclear war, dies at 77". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 21 September 2017. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
Myre, Greg (18 September 2017). "Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved The World,' Dies At 77". NPR. Archived from the original on 12 July 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
Daley, Jason (18 September 2017). Man Who Saved the World From Nuclear Annihilation Dies at 77: In 1983, Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov kept his cool and reported a U.S. missile strike as a false alarm, preventing a massive counterstrike. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2018. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
Jones, Nate. "The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook". National Security Archive. Archived from the original on 17 June 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
"Exercise Scenario," Background Paper, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Unclassified, date unknown, via National Security Archive.
^ Jones, Nate; Harper, Lauren (21 May 2013). "The 1983 War Scare: "The Last Paroxysm" of the Cold War Part II". Briefing Book # 427. National Security Archive. Archived from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
Walker, Martin (1993). The Cold War: A History. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 276.
Pry, War Scare, 43–4.
Gates, From the Shadows, 271, 272.
Oberdorfer, A New Era, 67.
Ap (28 July 1990). "Israeli Sees Chemical Option Against Iraqis". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ Pike, John (19 February 1998). "Nuclear Threats During the Gulf War". Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
Iddon, Paul (24 January 2017). "Saddam Hussein Seriously Feared a U.S. Nuclear Strike During the Gulf War". The National Interest. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
"'Saddam gave orders to fire chemical weapons at Tel Aviv if he was toppled in First Gulf War'". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
Hoffman, David (15 March 1998). "Cold-War Doctrines Refuse to Die". Washington Post Foreign Service. Archived from the original on 11 August 2018.
"January 25, 1995—The Norwegian Rocket Incident". United States European Command. 23 January 2012. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012.
Ricks, "Tough Punishment Expected for Warhead Errors", Warrick, "Missteps in the Bunker"

v t e Nuclear and radioactive disasters, former facilities, tests and test sites
Lists of disasters and incidents	Crimes involving radioactive substances Criticality accidents and incidents Nuclear meltdown accidents Military nuclear accidents Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents Nuclear and radiation accidents by death toll Nuclear and radiation fatalities by country Nuclear weapons tests China France India North Korea Pakistan South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom in Australia in the United States United States Sunken nuclear submarines List of orphan source incidents Nuclear power accidents by country
Individual accidents and sites	2019 Nyonoksa radiation accident 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident 2001 Instituto Oncológico Nacional#Accident 1996 San Juan de Dios radiotherapy accident 1990 Clinic of Zaragoza radiotherapy accident 1987 Goiânia accident 1986 Chernobyl disaster Effects Related articles 1985 Chazhma Bay nuclear accident 1985–1987 Therac-25 accident 1982 Andreev Bay nuclear accident 1980 Kramatorsk radiological accident 1979 Three Mile Island accident and Three Mile Island accident health effects 1969 Lucens reactor 1962 Thor missile launch failures at Johnston Atoll under Operation Fishbowl 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis 1961 K-19 nuclear accident 1961 SL-1 nuclear meltdown 1957 Kyshtym disaster 1957 Windscale fire 1957 Operation Plumbbob 1954 Totskoye nuclear exercise Bikini Atoll Hanford Site Rocky Flats Plant 1945 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Related topics	International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) Vulnerability of nuclear plants to attack Books about nuclear issues Films about nuclear issues Anti-war movement Bikini Atoll Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists History of the anti-nuclear movement International Day against Nuclear Tests Nuclear close calls Nuclear-Free Future Award Nuclear-free zone Nuclear power debate Nuclear power phase-out Nuclear weapons debate Peace activists Peace movement Peace camp Russell–Einstein Manifesto Smiling Sun
Nuclear technology portal Category

Misplaced Pages