1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Cold War? What Cold War? by: Barny Shergold
I was born in 1968, so my teens were from 1971-1987. How did I cope with the Cold War and the immeninent threat of Global Thermonuclear War?
Easy. I ignored it! Couldn't do anything about it, so I just didn't let it bother me!
1017 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
I probably would've had this point of view. If the world was destined for a nuclear holocaust, there's not much you could do. Might as well just go about your day. Kind of like today, you could be in constant fear of a terrorist attack or use the time you have wisely and enjoy life.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > 1977 If you we're born before the year 1985 you've propably have memories of the time when the end of the world seemed like a far more likely event than Finland winning the Eurovision song contest.
However, as you might or might have noticed, the Earth wasn't purged in a nuclear fire. Instead the Soviet Union collapsed and people had to find new things to be scared of. Even though as late as January 1995 a false alarm ment that nuclear war was only minutes away.
As Ronald Reagan said, we are the generation to face armageddon. Those of you born between 1950 and 1985 grew up in a world where destruction of everything was only four minutes away.
What I'm interested in is how did you cope? How did growing up during the cold war affect you? Did your parents worry? Did you worry? Or was is all just politics? Or did you actually believe that all would be fine if you just rememberd to duck and cover?
1109 days ago | 0 Comments | 1 Thumb-up
I was born in 1977 and I remember thinking as a kid that I really would like a nuclear cellar later to be safe if a nuclear bomb was ever dropped. I still remember the scare we had when Tjernobyl exploded.
I also remember thinking about plans on how to react if a nuclear bomb would drop: "would our cellar by safe enough?", "would we have enough food?", ...
I'm glad it didn't turn out that bad :-)
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > 1978 by: Andreas Bergman
I was born in 1978 and must say I don´t remember that much of events related to the Cold War. I do remember one animation shown frequently on the evening news which was a short animation on how Reagans Star Wars SDI would destroy russian missiles in outer space by shooting them down with some sort of laser beam.
I think the animation is shown in this very good document: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-B7axhPwYg
I recently read the book Cold War and find this topic and era a very exciting one. Best of luck with the project.
1124 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
Very good reminder of the stuff Reagan did to win the cold war, not always remembered. This is the stuff that took down the Soviet Union and made the world a much better place as we MAD went away as a concept.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > 1978 If you we're born before the year 1985 you've propably have memories of the time when the end of the world seemed like a far more likely event than Finland winning the Eurovision song contest.
However, as you might or might have noticed, the Earth wasn't purged in a nuclear fire. Instead the Soviet Union collapsed and people had to find new things to be scared of. Even though as late as January 1995 a false alarm ment that nuclear war was only minutes away.
As Ronald Reagan said, we are the generation to face armageddon. Those of you born between 1950 and 1985 grew up in a world where destruction of everything was only four minutes away.
What I'm interested in is how did you cope? How did growing up during the cold war affect you? Did your parents worry? Did you worry? Or was is all just politics? Or did you actually believe that all would be fine if you just rememberd to duck and cover?
1125 days ago | 1 Comment | 1 Thumb-up
I was born in 1978 and must say I don´t remember that much of events related to the Cold War. I do remember one animation shown frequently on the evening news which was a short animation on how Reagans Star Wars SDI would destroy russian missiles in outer space by shooting them down with some sort of laser beam.
I think the animation is shown in this very good document:
I recently read the book Cold War and find this topic and era a very exciting one. Best of luck with the project.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Cold War Baby If you we're born before the year 1985 you've propably have memories of the time when the end of the world seemed like a far more likely event than Finland winning the Eurovision song contest.
However, as you might or might have noticed, the Earth wasn't purged in a nuclear fire. Instead the Soviet Union collapsed and people had to find new things to be scared of. Even though as late as January 1995 a false alarm ment that nuclear war was only minutes away.
As Ronald Reagan said, we are the generation to face armageddon. Those of you born between 1950 and 1985 grew up in a world where destruction of everything was only four minutes away.
What I'm interested in is how did you cope? How did growing up during the cold war affect you? Did your parents worry? Did you worry? Or was is all just politics? Or did you actually believe that all would be fine if you just rememberd to duck and cover?
1151 days ago | 0 Comments | 1 Thumb-up
I was born July 14th, 1969 just five days before man walked on the moon. I remember growing up always aware of the Red Threat. The Soviets and the U.S. in an arms race building up our nuclear arsenal's. Going to bed every night scared that this might be the night that they launch on us or we launch on them. Ronald Reagan was a man that I looked up to as our fearless leader that wouldn't take any crap from the soviets. There was a constant fear of nuclear threat and that whole time during the late 70's and all of the 80's had a mentality all it's own. This idea escapes our children today who don't understand what living in constant fear is like. Honestly I miss the cold war in some respects. I know that statement may seem odd but the truth was we knew who the enemy was and where they were. Today, the enemy can be our next door neighbor with a dirty bomb. Ahh, how I long for the good ole days.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Aussie point of view. by: Chris Johnson
I was born in 1960 in Melbourne (Australia, not Florida). My earlier years were blissfully ignorant of MAD, until in my teens i read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach. That changed things for me. When the Bay of Pigs happened I was playing with brightly coloured blocks. By my teens (the 1970s) I began to understand that the fate of the world rested in the hands of two ideologically opposed fundamentalists. That's when I got scared. Then, this guy with a weird birthmark on his forehead pretty much saved the human race (from nuclear extermination, anyway). Reagan was a psychotic, we are well rid of him. The Bushs, well, let's not talk of that. I'd go on, but that would be getting into the realm of politics, rather than history.
I hope that this is of assistance.
C:\>
1166 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
I can relate...
If the 'losers' keep on saving the world...
it'll be over all too soon.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Finnish schools took it easy.. by: Jani Salomaa
I was born in 1980, and am rather glad that the Egoistic Big Bosses of my infant years - Reagan, Thatcher, and Brezhnev - didn't manage to blow this planet up.
As I recall, the Finnish school system treated the nuclear threat with the attitude "better to forget and ignore, rather than panic and live in fear". There were no duck'n'cover -drills, very few trips to the school's bomb shelter, and essentially no mention of nuclear weapons in elementary school curriculum.
I think it was a fine approach: Had an A-Bomb landed in Southern Finland, my chances of surviving would've been close to nil anyway. Instead of living in fear, I never really got traumatized by A-Bombs.
'
And then when 1990's came about the whole threat dissappeared, and life moved on.. Ignorance is sometimes bliss. But in hindsight, ANY POSSIBILITY of a nuclear war is such an irrational, awesome, terrible and unacceptable concept, that us adults have the moral responsibility to act against it.
1166 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
For some reason, I remember being more afraid of the chemical weapons than the atomic bomb. I guess the reasoning was that I gathered nobody would actually use atomic bombs in the fear of the mutually assured destruction, but someone crazy enough might use tactical chemical weapons.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Nuke free zone by: Mike Pohjola
I remember having planned starting a nuclear bomb free utopia on some remote island. The idea was that it would be out of reach of the bombs and fallout hitting any probable city or military targets. This was when I was in elementary school, so the prospect of actually pulling off was a bit remote.
Later I heard the song Kahdeksanvuotiaana ("When I Was Eight") by Finnish band Ultra Bra where the main character explains that when she was eight she tried to find a place on the map that would avoid fallout and discovered the Easter Islands. Later she found out that they conduct nuclear tests pretty close to that place.
1166 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
I stopped calculating my odds when i came across the 50 megaton Czar Bomba - the largest bomb ever detonated.
I used some calculator, and found out that even if i lived at a 100 km distance from Helsinki, the likely target of such bomb in Finland, my chances of surviving such a monster of a bomb were less than 10%.
After that day, i have never considered big A-Bombs to be in any way 'cool'...
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Finnish schools took it easy.. If you we're born before the year 1985 you've propably have memories of the time when the end of the world seemed like a far more likely event than Finland winning the Eurovision song contest.
However, as you might or might have noticed, the Earth wasn't purged in a nuclear fire. Instead the Soviet Union collapsed and people had to find new things to be scared of. Even though as late as January 1995 a false alarm ment that nuclear war was only minutes away.
As Ronald Reagan said, we are the generation to face armageddon. Those of you born between 1950 and 1985 grew up in a world where destruction of everything was only four minutes away.
What I'm interested in is how did you cope? How did growing up during the cold war affect you? Did your parents worry? Did you worry? Or was is all just politics? Or did you actually believe that all would be fine if you just rememberd to duck and cover?
1166 days ago | 1 Comment | 3 Thumb-ups
I was born in 1980, and am rather glad that the Egoistic Big Bosses of my infant years - Reagan, Thatcher, and Brezhnev - didn't manage to blow this planet up.
As I recall, the Finnish school system treated the nuclear threat with the attitude "better to forget and ignore, rather than panic and live in fear". There were no duck'n'cover -drills, very few trips to the school's bomb shelter, and essentially no mention of nuclear weapons in elementary school curriculum.
I think it was a fine approach: Had an A-Bomb landed in Southern Finland, my chances of surviving would've been close to nil anyway. Instead of living in fear, I never really got traumatized by A-Bombs.
'
And then when 1990's came about the whole threat dissappeared, and life moved on.. Ignorance is sometimes bliss. But in hindsight, ANY POSSIBILITY of a nuclear war is such an irrational, awesome, terrible and unacceptable concept, that us adults have the moral responsibility to act against it.
1973 > Calling the children of the cold war. > Aussie point of view. by: Chris Johnson
I was born in 1960 in Melbourne (Australia, not Florida). My earlier years were blissfully ignorant of MAD, until in my teens i read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach. That changed things for me. When the Bay of Pigs happened I was playing with brightly coloured blocks. By my teens (the 1970s) I began to understand that the fate of the world rested in the hands of two ideologically opposed fundamentalists. That's when I got scared. Then, this guy with a weird birthmark on his forehead pretty much saved the human race (from nuclear extermination, anyway). Reagan was a psychotic, we are well rid of him. The Bushs, well, let's not talk of that. I'd go on, but that would be getting into the realm of politics, rather than history.
I hope that this is of assistance.
C:\>
1166 days ago | 0 Thumb-ups
Reading On the Beach made me feel like the optimist side of my soul had been put through a meat grinder... It presents just a way too brutal, and all too possible scenario. It is really a horror novel, or at least it had that effect on me.
