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Old January 29th 17, 12:39 AM posted to sci.space.history
Stuf4
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Default The Space Race was about Power Projection - Miles O'Brien

From Scott Kozel:
On Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 3:07:40 AM UTC-5, Fred J. McCall wrote:
"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:
On Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 1:36:31 AM UTC-5, Fred J. McCall wrote:
"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:
Do you think that a de-orbital surprise attack with a small
cobalt bomb would do the trick, win that war outright?

Stop talking nonsense. What such an attack would do is get the entire
country of the attacker vaporized.

I wasn't suggesting that anybody do that, the question was
directed to Stuffie because I wanted to see what his response
would be.


So why 'cobalt bomb'? Insofar as short term (a few years) effects go,
THERE IS NO BLOODY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A 'COBALT' BOMB AND ANY OTHER
NUKE OF SIMILAR YIELD.


You already posted convincing logic that a cobalt bomb wouldn't
blow up 1/3 of the world.

Above, I posted in a attempt to elicit comments from Stuffie
about his opinions about what a cobalt bomb would do.

Stuffie?


I totally agree with Fred's assessment.

And I don't know how anyone would think anything different than Fred's assessment. Salting the earth only impacts long-term effects. To "win" a First Strike WWIII scenario, you would need to incapacitate all means of immediate retaliation.

I doubt that *any plan* that was brewed up toward achieving that was ever considered to be effective. And so I thoroughly expect that no government leader ever, at any point in time, ever gave any serious consideration to conducting a First Strike.

Launch On Warning was the no-brainer "defense" against any such plan, and this would mean that any attempt toward a First Strike "victory" would be met with disaster to both sides.


My original speculation in this thread about how the shuttle might have been used in brewing up any kind of attack plan was referring only to the planners. It was their job to dream up crazy things.


As it was, the only shuttles that were disintegrated happened as a result of lack of care, rather than anything intentional.

I recently got to meet with one of the family members of the Challenger crew. A long time friendship predating the tragedy. We said nothing about the mission. But there was that tension that it was on both of our minds.

~ CT