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arely staircase

(12,482 posts)
Thu Jan 23, 2014, 10:48 PM Jan 2014

ALMOST EVERYTHING IN “DR. STRANGELOVE” WAS TRUE

The early permissive action links were rudimentary. Placed in NATOweapons during the nineteen-sixties and known as Category A PALs, the switches relied on a split four-digit code, with ten thousand possible combinations. If the United States went to war, two people would be necessary to unlock a nuclear weapon, each of them provided with half the code. Category A PALs were useful mainly to delay unauthorized use, to buy time after a weapon had been taken or to thwart an individual psychotic hoping to cause a large explosion. A skilled technician could open a stolen weapon and unlock it within a few hours. Today’s Category D PALs, installed in the Air Force’s hydrogen bombs, are more sophisticated. They require a six-digit code, with a million possible combinations, and have a limited-try feature that disables a weapon when the wrong code is repeatedly entered.
I
Strategic Command—the organization responsible for all of America’s nuclear forces—-was investigated last summer for allegedly using counterfeit gambling chips at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa. According to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, “a significant monetary amount” of counterfeit chips was involved. Giardina was relieved of his command on October 3, 2013. A few days later, Major General Michael Carey, the Air Force commander in charge of America’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, was fired for conduct “unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” According to a report by the Inspector General of the Air Force, Carey had consumed too much alcohol during an official trip to Russia, behaved rudely toward Russian officers, spent time with “suspect” young foreign women in Moscow, loudly discussed sensitive information in a public hotel lounge there, and drunkenly pleaded to get onstage and sing with a Beatles cover band at La Cantina, a Mexican restaurant near Red Square. Despite his requests, the band wouldn’t let Carey onstage to sing or to play the guitar.
The most unlikely and absurd plot element in “Strangelove” is the existence of a Soviet “Doomsday Machine.” The device would trigger itself, automatically, if the Soviet Union were attacked with nuclear weapons. It was meant to be the ultimate deterrent, a threat to destroy the world in order to prevent an American nuclear strike. But the failure of the Soviets to tell the United States about the contraption defeats its purpose and, at the end of the film, inadvertently causes a nuclear Armageddon. “The whole point of the Doomsday Machine is lost,” Dr. Strangelove, the President’s science adviser, explains to the Soviet Ambassador, “if you keep it a secret!”A decade after the release of “Strangelove,” the Soviet Union began work on the Perimeter system—-a network of sensors and computers that could allow junior military officials to launch missiles without oversight from the Soviet leadership. Perhaps nobody at the Kremlin had seen the film. Completed in 1985, the system was known as the Dead Hand. Once it was activated, Perimeter would order the launch of long-range missiles at the United States if it detected nuclear detonations on Soviet soil and Soviet leaders couldn’t be reached. Like the Doomsday Machine in “Strangelove,” Perimeter was kept secret from the United States; its existence was not revealed until years after the Cold War ended.
http://m.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/01/strangelove-for-real.html

21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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ALMOST EVERYTHING IN “DR. STRANGELOVE” WAS TRUE (Original Post) arely staircase Jan 2014 OP
Yep... WillyT Jan 2014 #1
willyt, you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water? nt arely staircase Jan 2014 #2
Well... Yes.. Yes, I Actually Have... WillyT Jan 2014 #5
Oh, man. Made my night. pangaia Jan 2014 #6
LOL Cali_Democrat Jan 2014 #10
One of my top 5 movies Sgent Jan 2014 #3
mine too nt arely staircase Jan 2014 #4
k&r The Midway Rebel Jan 2014 #7
Indeed AgingAmerican Jan 2014 #8
I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it hare lips everybody on bear creek. longship Jan 2014 #12
The Best Fucking Movie of All Time. cherokeeprogressive Jan 2014 #9
Kubrick=Genius solarhydrocan Jan 2014 #11
Genius, but a total asshole. Archae Jan 2014 #16
Bollocks. Who besides Shelley Duval has ever said anything like that? solarhydrocan Jan 2014 #19
Here... Archae Jan 2014 #20
Sir, I have a plan...MEIN FUHRER, I CAN WALK!! Gravitycollapse Jan 2014 #13
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room! Gravitycollapse Jan 2014 #14
What else can I add? Rstrstx Jan 2014 #15
For those who love Strangelove and Kubrick, note the genius of Terry Southern Bluenorthwest Jan 2014 #17
I remember reading once that a Soviet officer refused to launch missiles Generic Other Jan 2014 #18
I do not avoid women, Mandrake. Octafish Jan 2014 #21

pangaia

(24,324 posts)
6. Oh, man. Made my night.
Thu Jan 23, 2014, 11:27 PM
Jan 2014

I know almost every line in the film...
from 'precious bodily fluids' to 'one issue of prophylactics.'

Sgent

(5,857 posts)
3. One of my top 5 movies
Thu Jan 23, 2014, 11:09 PM
Jan 2014

of all time, and my favorite comedy (I have a dark sense of humor...).

I love a lot of Kubrick's work, but this one was (IMHO) his best for so many reasons starting with George Scott and Peter Sellers.

 

cherokeeprogressive

(24,853 posts)
9. The Best Fucking Movie of All Time.
Fri Jan 24, 2014, 01:19 AM
Jan 2014

As young people can recite the lines in Rocky Horror Picture Show, I can recite the lines in Dr. Strangelove.

THERE'S a movie that could be remade... B-1s instead of B-52s... satellite tracking... cruise missiles... The Army fighting the Air Force with drones...

solarhydrocan

(551 posts)
19. Bollocks. Who besides Shelley Duval has ever said anything like that?
Fri Jan 24, 2014, 11:59 AM
Jan 2014

A perfectionist? Yes.
A pain in the ass sometimes? Of course. Who isn't.

A "total asshole"? Nope. There is no evidence for this claim.


Rstrstx

(1,393 posts)
15. What else can I add?
Fri Jan 24, 2014, 05:58 AM
Jan 2014

It's my favorite Kubrick movie, and it wasn't even his best movie (that award has to go to the brilliantly abstract 2001, a masterpiece if there ever was one). Also a shout out for his beautiful filmography in Barry Lyndon, every scene in that movie looks like it could have been a painting.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
17. For those who love Strangelove and Kubrick, note the genius of Terry Southern
Fri Jan 24, 2014, 11:04 AM
Jan 2014

who wrote the screenplay and all of those lines folks like to quote. Kubrick brought Southern in when he decided to make Strangelove a comedy. Southern wrote The Magic Christian, The Loved One, Cincinnati Kid, co wrote Easy Rider screenplay.....Stanley was great, but Terry was funny and great. It took them both to make this film what it is, along with the cast of brilliant performers.

Generic Other

(28,979 posts)
18. I remember reading once that a Soviet officer refused to launch missiles
Fri Jan 24, 2014, 11:08 AM
Jan 2014

when a glitch in the system indicated incoming nukes. Lucky for the US.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
21. I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Fri Jan 24, 2014, 04:57 PM
Jan 2014

But I... I do deny them my essence.



Kick for a great thread, film and most important article.

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