The Theat of Nuclear Annihilation in 1980s Britain

[Goldstone Rapper]

Think we beat Pompey wasn't it?
Threads is the most chilling film I have ever watched.

We lost 5-1...

 

[Lethargic]

Having served in the Air Force through most of the 80s there was a consideration of nuclear attack but never annihilation the obsession in the forces was far more with chemical warfare and being based in Germany if the soviets invaded on a Sunday night they wouldn't need nukes as 90% of NATO were pissed or hungover.

As others have said the immediate concern was the IRA not soviet nukes but the IRA weren't on Reagan's agenda so didn't fit the propaganda machine in the west at the time.

 

[Diego Napier]

Fear and paranoia? What a load of claptrap, most people were more worried about what was happening in Coronation Street.

No, some people were more worried about Coronation Street; lots of people were aware of the nuclear threat and concerned about it.

 

[BLOCK F]

We lost 5-1...

Don't think so!

 

[BLOCK F]

Has anyone ever visited Kelvedon Hatch nuclear bunker in Essex?
Absolutely fascinating,scary and well worth seeing.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

]

But the War Game was made in 1965 and never shown and that was not long after the bay of pigs. Surely the 60s/70s was far more on edge than the 70s/80s?

Agree,the Cuban Missile crisis was the closest to armageddon I ever hoped to get ....serving on Destroyers.....

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I never thought there would be a nuclear war throughout the 1980s, and was right.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

I suspect the threat these days is from North Korea or Iran doing something irrational with nukes or chemical weapons (or in the case of Iran if Israel decide to take the initiative).

 

[happypig]

Has anyone ever visited Kelvedon Hatch nuclear bunker in Essex?
Absolutely fascinating,scary and well worth seeing.

Keep meaning to visit it. I've been to the Scottish one at Anstruther and for a vintage telephone ehthusiast it's a real Aladdin's cave, loads of old phones, switchboards and telex machines.
I've also, through work, been to the bunker under Churchill Square (I've no idea if it's still there) and a Royal Observer Corps post in lewes (up behind the prison).

True story, In 1991/2 I was working in Worthing looking after Private Circuits in Portsmouth and the IoW. One luchtime I got a phone call from a bloke in Newport town hall asking if I was the bloke to speak to about the WB1400 early warning system. I was, so asked him what was wrong and he said it had gone faulty and the air raid siren had been going off for the last 4 hours; by all accounts the 999 service took a lot of calls from the island that day.

 

[pastafarian]

I think that there was a general background fear of nuclear annihilation from the 1950s through to the end of the 1980s when the wall came down. Your age is key to your perception of when we were most in danger, it is when you are a teenager that you first become aware of such things and that first awareness creates a deep impression. History will show, that the early 60s were probably the most dangerous, but the 50s had their moments (the Russians threatened Armageddon over Suez) and there were concerns over the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1980. There was also the ever present dangers of accidents, of which we were not aware at the times they occurred. A good pointer to all the fears are movies; through the alien (read Russian) invasion films of the 50s - Invasion of the Body Snatchers etc, to Threads in the 1980s the fear was always there- though I have to say I preferred the 50s films! I expect the teenagers of the 00s will discuss the fears of Islamic extremist terrorism in the same terms 20 years from now.........

probably the correct perspective

as a teenager in the early 80`s the nuclear war stuff on TV scared the crap out of me,but usually only for a day or two,then it was back to working out with my mates how we could defeat the pesky Russians along the lines of Red Dawn and the Wolverines armed only with a compass,a Pez dispenser,potato gun and a homemade catapult.

I do remember being far more fearful of the IRA and how every tom dick and harry had become a legitimate target to their cowardly murderous bombings and concerned because it seemed impossible to fathom an end to it,where as i always thought communism was mental so eventually somehow it would come to an end(of course i had no idea it would crumble the way it did).I think the same way about Islamic extremists today,they are nuts and eventually the threat will be dissolved to a point where we hardly even think about it, but i can understand young people wondering and being concerned if this is something they are going to have to live with their whole life

 

[Leighgull]

​

If you listen carefully on the car radio at start of Threads they read out a result for BHA. 1-0 to us of course.

Yeah. Then an atom bomb goes off. Bloody typical.

 

[The Spanish]

I suspect the threat these days is from North Korea or Iran doing something irrational with nukes or chemical weapons (or in the case of Iran if Israel decide to take the initiative).

china will drag everyone into world war three. north korea may be a bit player but it will be the chinese.

 

[pastafarian]

​

Yeah. Then an atom bomb goes off. Bloody typical.

In all fairness its probably one of the better excuses i have heard for us being 1-0 up and then things go tits up,i mean even the regular moaners would have a hard time associating Ashley Barnes with a nuclear holocaust

 

[somerset]

As I say, I'm not sure how real the threat was,.....

It wasn't, in the 80's at least....refer to the 60's where it was real.

 

[pastafarian]

china will drag everyone into world war three. north korea may be a bit player but it will be the chinese.

ooh ill bite.....what will china gain with world war three? the knowledge they wasted billions upon billions on foreign investment only to win a scorched earth.......yep that makes total sense

 

[The Spanish]

ooh ill bite.....what will china gain with world war three? the knowledge they wasted billions upon billions on foreign investment only to win a scorched earth.......yep that makes total sense

wars dont have to make sense. germany emerged as a economic powerhouse and then proceeded to wipe out europe. not content with that they picked themselves up and did it again.

dunno what the chinese word for lebensraum is but i guess they must have one

 

[somerset]

china will drag everyone into world war three. north korea may be a bit player but it will be the chinese.

How will a war be reconciled with the Chinese need for a stable world economy. Why would China want to kill its customers, you do know that the whole Chinese economy relies almost completely on the west buying it's products and services?.....just asking like.

 

[pastafarian]

It wasn't, in the 80's at least....refer to the 60's where it was real.

i guess the input of people on here that the threat was still credible in the 80`s means nothing to you.
60`s might have been a greater threat but the threat still remained in the 80`s nonetheless

 

[somerset]

germany emerged as a economic powerhouse

Germany was destitute between the wars, its economy was shot, inflation on a par with modern day Zimbabwe, the nationalisation by the Nazis of the whole German industrial structure was purely to support the military and the plan to expand and grab resources from other countries.

 

[pastafarian]

wars dont have to make sense. germany emerged as a economic powerhouse and then proceeded to wipe out europe. not content with that they picked themselves up and did it again.

your not really filling me with confidence here

i think there is a saying somewhere about madness and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

perhaps the Germans should have taken notes