Engages serious mode for a moment... (Whilst Frankie Goes to Hollywood plays on mp3 in background)
I think most of us who grew up during the early 1980s probably thought that conflict between east and west was inevitable, given that we had thousands of ICBMs aimed at one another.

The horrifying thing to remember is that the NATO countries (Britain in particular) had no plan to deal with the casualties had such a conflict escalated. Indeed, the inspiration of Threads was the results of an exercise called "Square Leg", a scenario surrounding a limited nuclear attack on the UK. The results made for very depressing reading, indeed the entire NHS in 1983 would have been wholly unable to cope with the casualties from an attack on Sheffield alone.

The aftermath of an attack would the left to local civil defence comittees to deal with, themselves denied funding, organisation or adequate shelter from attack.

In the East however, the governments made provision for nuclear shelters for the urban population. The West's rationale was that "we have more to lose in event of an attack than you". Thank fuckery that it never happened.

On the plus side, it has meant that there is a growing market in unstable middle eastern countries for ex-soviet nuclear technology. Every cloud, eh?
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Thu 10 Apr 2008, 16:22, Reply)