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On June 3, 1980, the Strategic Air Command was alerted that the Soviet Union was attacking the US.
Ironically, three years to the day before “WarGames” opened nationwide, this unsettling nuclear false alarm happened at NORAD:
In his 2016 book “Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War,” @fmkaplan revisited this episode, adding that when Reagan finished, he asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Vessey, “Could something like this really happen?”
Surprisingly, “WarGames” was not inspired by the major nuclear false alarms at NORAD on Nov. 9, 1979, and at NORAD and SAC on Jun. 3 and 6, 1980. It originally concerned a dying Hawking-like scientist and his relationship with a smart, rebellious teenager.
Link to tweet
Today in 1980, at 2:26am EDT, warning displays at the Strategic Air Command suddenly indicated that a Soviet SLBM attack on the United States was underway, first showing 2 and then, 18 seconds later, 200 inbound missiles. SAC ordered all alert air crews to start their engines.
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Launch officers for 1,000 Minuteman ICBMs were also alerted to be ready to receive an Emergency Action Message (a coded launch order). Three minutes later, duty officers at NORAD determined this was a false alarm because early-warning satellites and radars indicated no attack.
Before that happened, however, Gen. William Odom, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s military asst., called him at home, telling him 220 Soviet SLBMs were hurtling toward the United States. Brzezinski told Odom to call back with a confirmation and the likely targets.
This is according to former CIA Director Robert M. Gates’ 1996 memoir, “From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War,” the only place where this anecdote—as recounted by Brzezinski to Gates—appears.
{snip}
NMCC {the National Military Command Center} terminated the conference at 2:57am. The entire incident lasted 31 minutes. A subsequent investigation traced the cause to a defective 46¢ integrated circuit in a NORAD communications multiplexer, which sent test messages on dedicated lines from NORAD to other command posts.
Mon Jun 5, 2023: On June 3, 1980, the Strategic Air Command was alerted that the Soviet Union was attacking the US.