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It seems that the military powers of the world are constantly on edge, their fingers hovering
over the proverbial button that threatens to engulf the globe in war.
Since the end of the second World War, these following ten events over the last 70-plus
years are believed to have brought us to the cusp of World War III.
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10.
The Yeonpyeong Attacks Once described as the “Frontline of World
War III” in 2010, the South Korean islands of Yeonpyeong have been the focus of many
years of tension between North Korea and the United States-backed South Korea.
In June of 1999, gunboats from both countries tested the Northern Limit Line sea boundary
by Yeonpyeong until they were literally nudging one another back to their side.
After seven days of this aggression, the first shot was fired by the PT-381 North Korean
gunboat.
It started the first of several conflicts that threatened stability as North Korean
gunships regrouped and struck again in 2002.
In 2010, the north came back, this time bombarding Yeonpyeong.
9.
The Korean War According to CBS war correspondent, David
Morgan, the 1950’s tussle between North Korea and South Korea was “the beginning
of World War III.”
Backing North Korea were the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union while South
Korea received support from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, and much of
the United Nations, giving the war a more global scale.
Over a period of three years, the north and south struggled to make any headway and the
continued fighting created tensions that may have escalated had the war not ended in a
military stalemate in 1953.
8.
The Yom Kippur War In October of 1973, Israel was the site of
a surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces, adding to the many years of chaos in the Middle
East.
While the incident may not appear to be an omen of a third world war, as the United States
and the Soviet Union backed opposing factions in the attacks, it drew the two superpowers
back into a deadlock.
With the United States backing Israel and the Soviets backing Egypt and Syria, the Yom
Kippur War divided the nations once again, causing the U.S. military to jump to a Stage
3 alert, just two shy of a nuclear launch.
7.
The NORAD Computer Error The 1983 film WarGames wasn’t too off the
mark when it depicted a computer’s capability of starting World War III.
In fact, in 1979, that was almost a real-life scenario.
Early in the morning of November 9th, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in
Colorado received an alert that Soviet-launched missiles were heading towards the United States.
With no reason to think it was a false alarm, 10 interceptor fighters were launched in preparation
of a retaliatory attack.
Further inspection revealed that no missiles were careening towards the U.S. and the alert
had stemmed from a technician that ran a training program simulating a Soviet attack.
6.
Soviet False Alarm Only years after chastising the U.S. for the
dangerous situation the NORAD error could have caused, the Soviets fell victim to the
same false alarm.
On September 26th, 1983, the Soviet nuclear early warning system detected USAF Minuteman
intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from a United States base.
Monitoring the satellite at Serpukhov-15 and responsible for calling in any missile strikes
was Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov.
Being a new system, Petrov knew of the likelihood of a mistaken alert and, acting on a hunch,
called it in as a false alarm.
Allegedly, the satellite had responded to light reflecting off of high-altitude clouds
and Petrov’s hunch likely saved millions of lives.
5.
Able Archer 83 To best prepare for a nuclear strike and escalation
of global conflict, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization held simulations, code-named
Able Archer, that incorporated forces throughout Western Europe and the United States.
For the 1983 mockup, new elements were added to increase the realism, which immediately
caught the attention of the Soviets, who ordered double agent Oleg Gordievsky to observe NATO’s
actions.
Commanded to simply state what he saw and not an analysis, Gordievsky’s reports were
believed to show a ruse of war.
In response, the Soviets stationed nuclear forces and air units in East Germany and Poland
on high alert until the exercise ended on November 11th.
4.
September 11th, 2001 After the United States fell victim to an
attack orchestrated by al-Qaeda, it launched the “War on Terror,” a conflict with no
set battlegrounds and no promise of resolution in sight.
With the U.S. leading the charge, Afghanistan was the first target until the fall of the
Taliban in 2014 and, almost immediately, the sights shifted to the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant, which has carried the War on Terror into today.
While many believe the ongoing conflict to actually be World War III, there are those
that postulate it’s just the beginning of the horrors that have yet to come.
3.
Norwegian Rocket Incident (Black Brant Scare) This January 1995 event is often referred
to as the closest the world has come to nuclear war.
A Russian radar crew had observed an object soaring over the Barents Sea, its trajectory
directed towards Moscow.
With a ten-minute deadline to retaliate, then-president Boris Yeltsin was brought the nuclear command
suitcase and submarines were prepped and ready to launch.
All eyes were on the incoming object, believed to be an American Trident missile, and for
eight minutes, nuclear war was inevitable.
Before the counter expired, the object broke up into the sea.
Within hours, it was revealed the “Trident missile” was really a Norwegian scientific
rocket launched to study the Northern lights.
2.
The Cuban Missile Crisis During the 1950 and ‘60’s in the United
States, children were hiding under desks as a defense for the impending Soviet nuclear
strikes from Cuba.
The tension between the United States and Russia put the world on edge as everyone waited
for either of the twitchy nations to take the conflict to the next level.
During the 13-day conflict in October of 1962, the U.S. sent a naval blockade around Cuba
in preparations of neutralizing the nuclear threat.
Rather than engage the defensive move, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev brokered a deal with
President John F. Kennedy to remove the armament if the U.S. agreed to cease military activity
in Cuba and remove missiles from Turkey.
1.
The Soviet B-59 At the tail end of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
just a day before its conclusion, an American spy plane was shot down over Cuba while another
had traveled into Soviet airspace.
With tensions already at their peak, there didn’t seem to be any turning back.
The USS Beale started dropping “practice” depth charges on the Soviet’s nuclear-armed
B-59 as a warning.
Aboard the submarine, captain Valentin Savitsky assumed the charges to be real and resolved
to launch the ten kiloton nuke at the destroyer.
Though two of the three required senior officers were ready to fire, the third, Vasili Arkhipov,
refused to give consent and ceased the nuclear strike, potentially saving all
of mankind.