bstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (11/26/83)
The movie was quite clear that NATO used the first nukes by making an attack on the advancing soviet troops in Germany, but what was less clear was who launched the all-out strike first. I made a tape of TDA, and my conclusion is that the USA did, although it's not clear. The scenes in the SAC flying command base which show them picking up soviet ICBMS come AFTER the scenes of Kansas silos being launched. There is some vague mention of California radar, but that's after too. On the other hand, these scenes could very well not be in chronological order. This makes sense because I felt one of the most effective scenes in the film was that of watching the missiles take off. You saw them go (no other evidence of a war yet) and you thought SH*T. I'm going to die in 20 minutes! But if the film did show the US firing first, I wonder why there has been no comment on this from the film's opponents. P.S. For those who didn't like the U.S. panel, be glad you didn't watch the Canadian one. This turned into a big shouting match and got little done except to show you how much of a redneck the editor of the Toronto Sun is. The American debate was a model of calm and reason in comparison. The participants themselves were ashamed of what it turned into, I know from talking to one of them. -- Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ont. (519) 886-7304
bch@unc.UUCP (Byron Howes ) (11/27/83)
It was supposedly unclear as to who launched first. If, however, you assume that the U.S. did not operate under a policy of "launch on war- ning," then the U.S. would have had to be the one to have fired first. More likely there was a relatively gradual escalation of nuclear strikes in which eastern and western Europe were taken out first with the major powers to follow. If the U.S.S.R. viewed NATO as a U.S. surrogate (much as we view the Warsaw Pact as a Soviet surrogate) then it hardly makes any difference as to whether U.S. or NATO tactical weapons were fired first. The deployment of Pershing II missiles in west Germany (cited in the film as a provocation) forces the Soviet Union into a policy of "launch on warning" as the time between launch and strike becomes too short for analysis of the problem. If this was the scenario the film wished to portray, then any missile, bomber or radar noise straying into Soviet air space would have been considered invitation for a full-scale retaliation. -- Byron Howes UNC - Chapel Hill decvax!duke!mcnc!unc!bch