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What will happen to our world if all countries possessing nuclear weapons simultaneously enter war and use their nuclear potential? In 2019, scientists from the University of Pristan developed a possible doomsday scenario. They simulated a situation in which a conflict begins between Western European countries and Russia. It all starts with the bombing of major cities. Just imagine, most of the population of European capitals such as Warsaw, Prague and Berlin disappearing in just a second. In response, the United States sends nuclear missiles to Moscow and St. Petersburg. And then the remaining six countries of the world that have officially confirmed the presence of nuclear weapons in their arsenal enter the war.
These are China, North Korea, France, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. This scenario of events was called Plan A. Unfortunately, it does not take into account that in response to Russia's actions, Western countries could also use not nuclear warheads, but their own concerns. But there have been several moments in our history when the world was one step away from nuclear war. So what would have happened if the red button had been pressed? August 6 and 9, 1945, went down in history as some of the most terrifying days in the entire existence of mankind. That was the first time nuclear weapons were used for
military purposes, not at a test site. The US military dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final stages of World War II. The consequences of these explosions are still terrifying today. The atomic bombings killed about 214,000 people. So, in Hiroshima, only shadows remained of the people who were on the street at the moment of the explosion But there could have been many more such cities in Japan Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb Kid on Hiroshima, claimed that US authorities did not plan to stop at the two cities.
According to Tibetse, he had 15 bombers with crews on standby. After all, before the attack on Hishimo and Nagasaki, no one assumed that the Japanese government would soon capitulate, and even more so did not believe so by the participants in the Manhattan Project. This is the code name for the US nuclear weapons development program, which formally began on August 13, 1942. Its scientific director was Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist. The Manhattan Project was supposed to create an entire industry for the production of deadly weapons.
It could produce about three plutonium bombs a month and one uranium bomb every month or two. The world's first nuclear weapons test, called Trinity, took place on July 16, 1945, in the Mexican desert. During the study, a plutonium bomb, called Gadget, was tested. The scientists were delighted with the results. The explosion obtained during the tests turned out to be several times more powerful than they expected. Immediately after Trinity, Major General Leslie Grose, the military leader of the Mangata project, told Oppenheimer that it would probably be necessary to drop not two bombs, but three, as originally planned. But which Japanese city could be the
next target? The third bomb was to fall on Japan on August 19, 1945. This became known from a declassified conversation between two American military officials. The nuclear bomb would be identical to the Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki. And the original target of this bomb was Tokyo. But most industrial facilities in the Japanese capital have already suffered from repeated air bombings, and large city blocks have been destroyed as a result of massive air attacks. Therefore, a nuclear bomb would not have created such a terrifying effect as in a city untouched by war, and would not have given scientists the full picture of the destruction necessary to continue developing such weapons.
Therefore, locations where the destruction was minimal were considered for the next attack. The list of targets reserved for attack included Kogama, the second largest city in Japan after Tokyo, and Kokura. Niigata and Kyoto. Kyoto, the former Japanese capital, was virtually unscathed by bombing during World War II and found itself under threat. But when the target was fully approved, American Secretary of War Henry Stimpson intervened. He persuaded US President Harry Truman to the last not to drop the atomic bomb on Kyoto. Did Stimson realize that the bombing would bring catastrophic destruction and take the lives of millions of people? Of course not. As it turned out, the
Minister of War spent his honeymoon in Kyoto. He didn't want this particular city to be wiped off the face of the earth. Fortunately, Japan surrendered, which saved it from further bombing. However, what if the red button was pressed anyway? Let's assume that Simpson managed to convince the president not to drop the bomb on Kyoto. Then the most likely candidate for the next strike would be Tokyo. Then on the night of August 19, 1945, a bomber carrying a deadly charge
would leave a US military base. A few hours later, instead of the sunrise, Tokyo residents would notice an unusually bright flash. 21-kt explosion would be heard in the city About 70,000 people who were at the epicenter at the time of the explosion died within a few seconds. Another 60,000 would have received serious injuries and a fatal dose of radiation. Within a few minutes of the explosion, about 30% of the city's population would have died. The wooden buildings of Tokyo in the 1940s would have collapsed like houses of cards. The Japanese emperor and his government would most likely also have died in a
nuclear attack, as they were in the center of the capital. If a third atomic bomb had fallen on Japan, it could have thrown the country back many centuries and the consequences of World War II would haunt the country to this day. But it wasn't just Japan that was under threat. After all, shortly after World War II, the world found itself on the brink of a new full-scale nuclear war. Within weeks of the victory over Nazi Germany, the United States and Great Britain began developing military plans to destroy the Soviet Union.
They were aimed at destroying the communist state with a series of nuclear strikes. The operation was called The Unthinkable. The USA and Great Britain were frightened by the fact that the USSR had deployed a large number of its troops in Europe, thereby creating a threat. And because Stalin's moods were unpredictable, a new war could begin at any moment. According to a memo preserved in the archives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in America, Churchill, the British Prime Minister, believed that if an atomic bomb were dropped on the Kremlin, it would be easy to take control of the Soviet Union.
Also, a nuclear strike on the USSR would allow the Allied forces to avoid losses among the American and British military. But it wasn't just Britain that planned to use the atomic bomb against Stalin. According to the documents, between 1945 and 1949, the Pentagon developed as many as nine plans for nuclear war against the Soviets. One of the most famous was developed in 1949 and was called the dropshot. According to it, the US was to drop at least 300 nuclear bombs and 20,000 tons of conventional bombs on the Soviet Union on 200 targets in 100 cities, including Moscow and
modern-day St. Petersburg. In addition, a land military campaign against the USSR was to begin for a complete victory over it. According to the archives, the start of the war was planned for January 1, 1957. But what stopped Britain and the United States? Perhaps they were frightened by the millions of victims and possible destruction across almost half the continent? No. The only obstacle for many years was the insufficient number of atomic bombs and aircraft. By 1948, Washington had an arsenal of 50 atomic bombs and only 32 B-29 bombers that could carry them. But in 1949, the United States was able to produce another
250 nuclear bombs. And Operation Dropshot was about to begin. But the world was shocked by incredible news. The Soviet Union developed its own atomic bomb. And although the American military understood that the communists' nuclear potential was quite small, it was no longer possible to ignore the fact of the existence of such weapons. Finally, in 1960, after 12 years, all possible strategies for nuclear war were brought together in a single integrated operational plan. If it had been carried out, there would have been a simultaneous massive nuclear strike on nuclear facilities, military facilities, and major cities in the USSR, as well as China and Eastern Europe. In the short term, US strategic forces would
launch 3,500 nuclear strikes on these territories. According to estimates by American generals, such an attack would have claimed the lives of between 285 and 425 million people. And some European allies were to be completely wiped off the face of the earth. And this plan could really have been applied during the Caribbean crisis. October 27, 1962 could have been the last day in human history. This day went down in history as Black Saturday and became the apogee of the Caribbean crisis, which lasted 13 days. And the world would never be so close to nuclear war as it has been in these two weeks. It all started in 1960 during the
US presidential election race. The Eisenhower administration began secret training of Cuban refugees in Guatemala. They were to return home as a guerrilla unit and gather the revolutionary-minded inhabitants of the island to overthrow Fidel Castro. The secret plan was quickly exposed when a US newspaper reported that the CIA had spent a million dollars on real estate for the exercises. On April 17, 1961, Cuban troops landed on the shores of the Bay of Cochinos, or Bay of Pigs. But it took Castro's forces only a few days to suppress the uprising. And then Fidel Castro asked the USSR for help to protect his regime. Khrushchev decided to send missiles to Cuba a year after this operation. By that time, part of the US nuclear arsenal
was already in Turkey, a neighbor of the Soviets. And placing missiles in Cuba could restore the balance of terror, according to the USSR General Secretary. But Khrushchev decided to deliver nuclear weapons to the island secretly. Before the Americans realized what was happening, Khrushchev had managed to transfer 40,000 troops and more than 160 nuclear warheads to Cuba. On October 16, John F. Kennedy received intelligence information about Soviet medium-range missile launchers in Cuba. This date is considered the beginning of the Caribbean crisis. The main task for the US president was to remove the missiles from Cuba while avoiding an exchange of nuclear strikes.
Therefore he provided arguments in favor of a blockade of Cuba rather than an invasion of the island. But since the blockade implies war, it was renamed to a milder version: quarantine. When he introduced it on October 22, Kennedy did not expect at all that the Soviet submarine B59 was in the Sargasso Sea, transporting nuclear warheads to Liberty Island. The submarine, designed for sailing in the northern seas, had problems operating in warm water. The temperature inside rose to critical levels and continued to rise, reaching over 30°C. One of the crew members recalled that the sailors were losing consciousness and falling like dominoes. But by that time, American ESMS were already lurking in the sea right above the
submarine, preventing it from rising to recharge its batteries and use its antennas. Boat captain Valentyn Savidsky knew from reports of the past few days that a military crisis was gaining momentum on land. But, unable to receive radio signals, he could not learn about the latest events. Suddenly, the boat shook from a series of explosions. B-59 communications specialist Vadim Orlov compared this feeling to being in a metal shell that someone is constantly hitting with a hammer. To avoid escalation, American warships were to follow protocol in the event of a submarine encounter and drop harmless depth charges, ordering the boats to surface. But that day someone decided to throw hand grenades into the water. Then Savitsky ordered the crew
to prepare for return fire, thinking that a war had begun. Those who dropped the grenades did not know that the B-59 was carrying what they called special ammunition with a 15-ktn nuclear warhead. At that time, the world was only a few seconds away from the start of a nuclear war But on board the submarine was the captain of the USSR Navy, Vasily Arkhipov. Before going to Cuba, he served on the K-19, the first nuclear-armed submarine with a nuclear power plant. It was put into operation in a hurry to keep up with the Americans. In the summer of 1961, K-19 was participating in exercises off the coast of Greenland when its reactor cooling system failed.
Seven crew members died. A week after the radiation accident, the submarine was called Hiroshi. Therefore, understanding the consequences of nuclear weapons, Arkhipov tried to persuade Savitsky not to launch the missile. Fortunately, he succeeded. If Savitsko's order had been carried out, a full-scale nuclear war would have begun between the USA and the USSR The US would instantly respond to the strike by launching missiles from its base in Turkey. And the USSR would immediately respond by launching missiles from Cuba. As a result, it would not only be the Soviets and America who would suffer. Turkey and Cuba were simply wiped off the face of the earth.
Such a shootout would kill 360 million people. After mutual nuclear strikes, a huge amount of radioactive dust and soot would enter the atmosphere. The temperature across the planet would drop by several degrees and a nuclear winter would begin. It would be followed by mass famine and the death of almost half of the Earth's population. Fortunately, the captain of the Soviet submarine had enough guts not to press the red button that day, but the world didn't learn that lesson either. 21 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, on September 26, 1983, we again found ourselves on the brink of nuclear disaster. Early in the morning, 100 km from Moscow, officer Stanislav Petrov was on duty at the command post of the space missile detection system.
Petrov received a notification from early warning systems about a missile strike from the US. The computer showed that several missiles were flying towards the USSR. According to the protocol, Petrov was supposed to immediately inform the management about this And the Soviet military would have promptly launched a nuclear strike in response, but the man decided to disobey orders and not report the attack immediately. He decided to check everything again. The officer on duty contacted a group of satellite radar operators, who reported that they had not detected any missiles, but they could be wrong. Petrov had a choice: to report information about the missile attack or a
possible system failure to the USSR leadership. If he had chosen the first option, the information would have reached the highest representatives of the country's authorities in a few minutes. And the USSR would launch a nuclear strike in response to the United States. It is believed that if a nuclear war between the USSR and the USA had occurred that day, the death toll in the world could have reached several hundred million people. But Petrov still reported a failure in the missile detection system. He doubted until the last moment and understood that if he fell, the explosion would occur within a few minutes. But the explosion did not happen. But even this situation was not the last, when the world stood on the threshold of doomsday. On
January 25, 1995, the Russian early warning system mistakenly reported the launch of an American ballistic missile near the coast of Norway. President Boris Yeltsin immediately pulled out his nuclear suitcase and put it on alert, ordering a full-scale retaliatory strike. But fortunately, at the same moment the country's leadership reported that the culprit of the alarm was a scientific rocket launched in Norway to study the northern lights. If the button had been pressed that day, Norway would have disappeared from the world map, and neighboring Sweden, Finland, and Denmark would have struggled for several more decades with the spread of radiation and a nuclear winter that brings hunger and death. But a Russian nuclear attack would
not go unpunished. Yeltsin's mistake would have led to a full-scale nuclear war, in which the United States, China, and Europe would have been involved. But even this lesson the world never learned. At the beginning of 2023, there were only 90 seconds left on the Doomsday Clock until midnight. And this is the shortest distance in the entire history of its existence. They decided to move the clock forward 10 seconds because of the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine. But today, it is not only us who are under threat of nuclear attack, but also Taiwan, which is threatened by China. Another country vulnerable to nuclear attacks is Japan. Because North Korea's missiles are aimed directly at Tokyo. If world leaders start a
full-scale nuclear war and press their red buttons, 4,500 nuclear bombs will rise into the air. After their explosion, 150 million tons of radioactive dust will be released into the stratosphere, blocking out the sun. Sea temperatures will drop by almost 7°, and scientists have estimated that in Russia and the United States alone, a nuclear war would kill more than 3 million people within the first 45 minutes after the first nuclear explosion. And those who survive will have to deal with radioactive fallout and the consequences of radiation. Agriculture on all continents of our planet, except Australia, will be completely destroyed. The global famine could last for more than two years,
killing more than 5 billion people. And so, by the way, we are talking about a scenario in which only about half of the world's nuclear arsenal would be used. What happens if you use all of it?
