joG
DP Veteran
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No, what he should have done was what he did. NOT present information that he was unsure of, potentially triggering the Kremlin to react in a self-defensive way. He waited and investigated. A good soldier gives his commanders ACCURATE information so they can act in an informed way. He had no duty to supply questionable information.
And no, the Kremlin certainly would have had reason to react in exactly the way that I suggested. This was 1983. The Cold War was pretty significant at the time.
Yes. The Cold war was pretty significant at that time and had been for over two decades by then. That is why it is so unrealistic to think the Kremlin would have acted heedlessly. These situations had all been analysed with respect to MAD and the consequences of error. It was well known that the greatest danger was human or technical errors and that that was absolutely the first thing to check. It would not have happend that the Kremlin would have gone to war before checking the Washington-Moscow Direct Communications Link installed for just this kind of situation. Why should they have in a situation like this? The number of rockets on the screen was too small to knock out their retaliation capabilities. There was absolutely no need for headless activity but every reason to get it right.