The War that wasn't

I was born  in 1963, just outside the Baby Boomer generation (depending on who's counting). It goes without saying that know the War on Terrorism and the Gulf War. I also remember Panama, Grenada and the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut. With the Vietnam War things start to get fuzzy and I don't really remember much. What I do remember is all C-130 flights over my grandparents farm as they shuttled troops from Ft Campbell, KY to parts unknown. I clearly remember a dozen of so winging overheard and wondering where they were going. I remember jets coming down and making "bombing" runs over the railroad overpass.

The war I remember the best, outside Operation Iraqi Freedom, was the Cold War. I can barely remember learning to duck and cover. We never had a fall-out shelter as I can remember. Our post office downtown was the only fall-out shelter in town. There was probably no way we could have all fit. I suppose most of us remember similar details about the Cold War. The thought of nuclear remained mostly in the back of our minds.

The movies pulled a lot of what the Cold War was about. "Dr Strangelove" put a comedic twist to the seriousness of the possibility of nuclear war. (One of the great all-time movie moments was Slim Pickens riding a bomb to target.)  The most dramatic movies was "Fail Safe." We now know that the greatest threat to peace was an accidental ignition that could start a war. The scariest movie, by far, was "The Day After." It didn't focus so much on how a nuclear could start, like many of it's predecessors, but what happens after the bombs fall. "The Day After" showed the horror of survival. Of course, those nuclear war themes have been turned into zombie apocalypse. However, the threat of zombies was nothing like the threat of thermonuclear war.

I recently watched the documentary, "The Atomic Cafe." "The Atomic Cafe" focused on how the Cold War started. I would suggest that every one should watch this flick. It is a great history piece that is rarely shown. Those who lived through the Cold War could see how it started. Those who were born after, say 1980, never knew the dangers. It's a part of history that shows the world in a unique way.