Mayan Calendar? the Cold War, that Could Have Been the End

As you may have heard it's the "end of the world" December 21. Some of you may remember and others may not, but in the 1980s it was the end of the of the cold war. The U.S. had nuclear missiles aimed at the Soviet Union and vice-versa. To me that was a very scary time. Talk about the end of the world, a World War III could have been it. One nuclear bomb would have lead to retaliation presumably and that would have done us in or be the end as we know it. Not to get all serious, but there were times when I was genuinely freaked.

Not to take away from the Cuban Missile Crises during Kennedy's era, which from what I understand, is the closest we ever came to war with the USSR. I would see Ronald Reagan on TV from behind the podium give speeches and declarations, like "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall."

They were pretty serious times to be a kid in school and enjoying childhood. Movies about the KGB and angry men guarding prisons in Siberia, remember them? Probably lore, but where I'm from, Halifax, they were supposedly #7 on the Soviet hit list because of the ice free harbor. I don't know, I Googled it and the link above popped up. You can look through it if you want to.

There were a couple mini series about the friction between the U.S. and Soviet Union, one entitled, The Day After and another called Amerika. Another movie that comes to mind about a nuclear bomb was a movie that was set up like a real time CNN "breaking news" broadcast. I can't remember the name of it now but it was a dark time behind all of the leg warmers and hairspray. Living back then at times it felt like any day could have been the last.

Luckily treaties were signed and the arms race ended and the warheads were disabled. Not really sure how you disable a nuke but I'll be ignorant with bliss and assume both superpowers did it and there is no threat from it. We now have one Germany, a Russia that plays well with others and in my mind no threat nearly as great as the cold war.

So for the doomsday preppers who are getting ready for tomorrow because of an unfinished calendar, give me a break. This has nothing on the threat of old Kremlin at the Red Square.