En cours de chargement...
Part 2 of the series analyses as to how; after the transition from nuclear to the thermonuclear weapons for mankind, within less than a decade of the onset of the Atomic Age; the focus across superpowers shifted towards miniaturization of nuclear warheads and development of novel and difficult to detect & track strategic nuclear delivery vehicles (SNDVs), which witnessed the emergence of ICBMs and SLBMs, after nuclear-tipped torpedoes, thereby, further increasing the risks of nuclear warfare & holocaust manifold while simultaneously also reducing the reaction times considerably.
The same was underscored by the 1962's Cuba Missile Crisis with the world nearly reaching an almost nuclear apocalypse moment with the end of civilization being just seconds away. The recently declassified documents unravel as to how dangerously close the world had come to the verge of that with the Soviet submarines having almost pulled the launch trigger of their nuclear-tipped T-5 torpedoes targeted at the U.
S. Navy ships. However, it paved the way for realization of the need for de-escalation, mutual cooperation and multiple treaties to check dangerous nuclear escalations, atmospheric testing & further proliferation. Further, high-altitude nuclear detonations by both sides in 1961 & 1962 led to the realization of the phenomenon of Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse (NEMP), the Christofilos Effect & the resulting Electromagnetic Shields and their potential military utilization & implications.
The detonation of a nuclear weapon by China, a developing nation, in 1964 marked the further proliferation of nuclear weapons beyond West and onset of the nuclear weapons age in Asia, further underscoring the need to check nuclear proliferation which ultimately led to the creation of the NPT regime. However, unabated development of nuclear weapons and delivery systems across both superpowers had ensured, by the end of the highly dangerous decade of 1960s, that 6, 500 megatons-worth of thermonuclear warheads were deployed atop ICBMs and SLBMs by the two superpowers, capable of annihilating each other, as well as Earth, many times over in just a matter of minutes...the critical minutes to midnight which were critical and were to make the ultimate difference and decision between the continued sustenance of life and the end of civilization on Planet Earth forever...
In hindsight, it's purely a miracle that the mankind survived that hanging Nuclear Sword of Damocles over mankind for decades..