I just listened to a sound bite of a KGO correspondent in a discussion with Ted Sorenson, President John F. Kennedy’s Special Counsel & Adviser when he was in the White House. A lot of disturbing facts were brought up centering on how curiously close we’ve come to nuclear war in the past. This includes the Cuban missile Crisis, and the conflict with th Soviet Union.

There was one circumstance Mr. Sorenson mentioned where a Soviet submarine equipped with a "nuclear missile" (which at the time had been unheard of) was underneath a fleet of US carriers. The entire Soviet crew was in agreement the sub should strike with the missile, and eventually convinced the captain. The only thing that kept them from acting was a command from a Soviet politician who happened to be on the sub. He insisted on getting clearance, which, at the time, was an impossibility because they were submerged.

There was another one where correspondence about whether or not to strike was trusted in the responsibility of a random Western Union worker in the Soviet Union on a bike, going back and forth from the Embassy to to the government office.

How close are we to nuclear war? Have I been overly cynical all these years, or am I justified in making some "mystic" rationalizations / deductions about nuclear fallout? It has been proven countless times America (as a whole) is lot less prepared for conflicts of this magnitude then the media leads us to believe. What are the factors keeping us from nuclear war now?