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From: bch@unc.UUCP (Byron Howes )
Newsgroups: net.tv.da
Subject: Re: Does anybody else think the USA fired missiles first?
Message-ID: <6324@unc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27-Nov-83 15:19:42 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.6324
Posted: Sun Nov 27 15:19:42 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Nov-83 06:19:38 EST
References: <6191@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: University of North Carolina Comp. Center
Lines: 20

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