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77-530: This anime is set in the year 2130 (the beginning date remains unclear), 50 years after World War III . The war has left a crater where Tokyo once stood, a place now filled with contaminated rubble. This spot, known as "The Black Spot", has no electrical power (with the exception being the Simeon building) and is seen as a dark spherical patch from outer space and one of many Black Spots across Japan. The Black Spot eventually becomes populated by outcasts, some of whom, as

154-551: A " wild card " than a strategic deterrent. Although he later believed in disarmament treaties slowly blunting the danger of nuclear weaponry by reducing their number and alert status, he also believed a technological solution might allow incoming ICBMs to be shot down, thus making the US invulnerable to a first strike. However, the USSR saw the SDI concept as a major threat, since a unilateral deployment of

231-543: A "force under a centralized command, adequate to deter aggression and to ensure the defense of Western Europe". Allied Command Europe was established under General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower , U.S. Army , on 2 April 1951. The Western Union Defence Organization had previously carried out Exercise Verity , a 1949 multilateral exercise involving naval air strikes and submarine attacks. Exercise Mainbrace brought together 200 ships and over 50,000 personnel to practice

308-414: A clash could very easily escalate and quickly involve nuclear weapons. Instead, the superpowers fought each other through their involvement in proxy wars , military buildups, and diplomatic standoffs. Thus, no two nuclear powers have yet fought a conventional war directly except for two brief skirmishes between China and Soviet Union in the 1969 Sino-Soviet conflict and between India and Pakistan in

385-474: A confrontation on the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba in response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion , is considered as having been the closest to a nuclear exchange, which could have precipitated a third World War. The crisis peaked on 27 October, with three separate major incidents occurring on the same day: Despite what many believe to be the closest the world has come to a nuclear conflict, throughout

462-555: A decisive role. At the time, the US nuclear arsenal was limited in size, based mostly in the United States, and depended on bombers for delivery. Dropshot included mission profiles that would have used 300 nuclear bombs and 29,000 high-explosive bombs on 200 targets in 100 cities and towns to wipe out 85% of the Soviet Union's industrial potential in a single stroke. Between 75 and 100 of

539-775: A direct conflict between Russia and NATO, such as Russian breaches of NATO airspace and a missile explosion in Poland. In early 2023, Putin suspended Russia's participation in New START , the last remaining nuclear treaty between Russia and the US, and announced plans to install Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus . Conventional warfare Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted by using conventional weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation. The forces on each side are well-defined and fight by using weapons that target primarily

616-584: A full-scale nuclear confrontation would completely annihilate all parties to the conflict, was developed. US and Soviet leaders worked to avoid such an outcome, though several close calls caused by faulty technology or human error still occurred, underscoring the need for restraint by both sides. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, various military conflicts, most notably the Russian invasion of Ukraine ongoing since 2022, as well as rising geopolitical tensions between

693-526: A mixed task force and handle it effectively as a working unit." The Soviet Union called the exercises "war-like acts" by NATO, with particular reference to the participation of Norway and Denmark and prepared for its military maneuvers in the Soviet Zone . Exercise Strikeback was a major NATO naval exercise held in 1957, simulating a response to an all-out Soviet attack on NATO. The exercise involved over 200 warships, 650 aircraft, and 75,000 personnel from

770-475: A naval base without destroying the city adjacent to it, so the aim of using them was to destroy the enemy's industrial capacity to cripple their war economy. The Republic of Ireland started planning for a possible nuclear war in the late 1940s. Co-operation between the United Kingdom and Ireland would be formed in the event of WWIII, where they would share weather data, control aids to navigation, and coordinate

847-802: A new stage in the Cultural Revolution ; that of China's thorough militarization. The 9th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party , held in the aftermath of the Zhenbao Island incident , confirmed Defense Minister Lin Biao as Mao Zedong 's heir apparent. Following the events of 1969, the Soviet Union further increased its forces along the Sino-Soviet border , and in the Mongolian People's Republic . The Yom Kippur War , also known as

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924-538: A period of conflict escalation that culminated in a DEFCON 1 nuclear strike, some members of the Soviet Politburo and armed forces treated the events as a ruse of war concealing a genuine first strike. In response, the military prepared for a coordinated counter-attack by readying nuclear forces and placing air units stationed in the Warsaw Pact states of East Germany and Poland under high alert. However,

1001-476: A prequel, Needless Zero , was collected in two volumes, released on January 19, 2004, and June 19, 2009. An anime television series adaptation of Needless was announced in March 2009. The series was animated by Madhouse and directed by Masayuki Sakoi . It was broadcast for twenty-four episodes on Tokyo MX , MBS , TV Saitama , TV Kanagawa and Tokai TV from July 3 to December 11, 2009. The first opening theme

1078-487: A result of the contamination, gain various powers called "fragments". Those in possession of such fragments come to be known as "Needless". Written and illustrated by Kami Imai , Needless was serialized in Shueisha 's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from October 18, 2003, to June 19, 2013. Shueisha collected its chapters in sixteen tankōbon volumes, released from June 18, 2004, to September 19, 2013. Additionally,

1155-531: A world war. On 24 February 2022, Russia's president Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine , marking a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War , which began in 2014. The Russian invasion started the largest war in Europe since World War II. Various experts, analysts, and others have described the invasion as heightening the risk of a third world war, while others have suggested

1232-624: Is "Modern Strange Cowboy" by GRANRODEO and the first ending is "Aggressive Zone" by Needless★Girls (a group composed of the series' voice actresses, Aya Endo, Eri Kitamura, Emiri Katō, Saori Gotō and Yui Makino). The second opening theme is "Scarlet Bomb!" by Aki Misato and the second ending theme is "WANTED! for the love" by Needless★Girls. Gargoyle also contributed the insert songs "Shi ni Itaru Kizu" ( 死にいたる傷 ) and "Magma Kid" ( マグマキッド , Maguma Kiddo ) . In North America, Section23 Films announced in November 2010 that Sentai Filmworks licensed

1309-415: Is a rational calculation in which states fight for their interests (whether they are economic, security-related, or otherwise) once normal discourse has broken down. Most modern wars have been conducted using conventional means. Confirmed use of biological warfare by a nation state has not occurred since 1945, and chemical warfare has been used only a few times (the latest known confrontation in which it

1386-638: Is engulfing the Far East and the entire world." Downs afterwards repeated this belief on ABC Evening News while reporting on the USS Pueblo incident in 1968. Secretary of State Dean Acheson later acknowledged that the Truman administration was concerned about the escalation of the conflict and that General Douglas MacArthur warned him that a U.S.-led intervention risked a Soviet response. The Berlin Crisis of 1961

1463-401: Is verified by examination of the conventional armies of the time: large, high-maintenance, and technologically advanced armies designed to compete against similarly designed forces. Clausewitz also forwarded the issue of casus belli . Wars had been fought for social, religious, or even cultural reasons, and Clausewitz taught that war is merely "a continuation of politics by other means." It

1540-664: The Civil Reserve Air Fleet . Seven Days to the River Rhine was a top-secret military simulation exercise developed in 1979 by the Warsaw Pact. It started with the assumption that NATO would launch a nuclear attack on the Vistula river valley in a first-strike scenario, which would result in as many as two million Polish civilian casualties. In response, a Soviet counter-strike would be carried out against West Germany , Belgium ,

1617-575: The Cold War (1947–1991) and spread of nuclear weapons to the Soviet Union , which was followed by their acquisition by several other countries , the risk of a third world war rose. During the Cold War, the possibility was anticipated and planned for by military and civil personnel around the world, with scenarios ranging from conventional warfare to limited or total nuclear warfare . The strategic doctrine of mutually assured destruction , which posited that

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1694-526: The Manhattan Project 's development of nuclear weapons in 1945 and their use by the United States in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, the risk of a nuclear apocalypse causing widespread destruction and the potential collapse of civilization or extinction of humanity has become a common theme in speculation and fiction about World War III. With the advent of

1771-475: The Mediterranean Sea during 1952 to practice dislodging an enemy occupying force and amphibious assault. It involved over 170 warships and 700 aircraft under the overall command of Admiral Robert B. Carney . The overall exercise commander, Carney summarized the accomplishments of Exercise Grand Slam by stating: "We have demonstrated that the senior commanders of all four powers can successfully take charge of

1848-498: The Napoleonic Wars . Prussia was one of the countries that tried to amass military power. Carl von Clausewitz , one of Prussia's officers, wrote On War , a work rooted solely in the world of the state. All other forms of intrastate conflict, such as rebellion , are not accounted for because in theoretical terms, he could not account for warfare before the state. However, near the end of his life, he grew increasingly aware of

1925-818: The Netherlands and Denmark , with Warsaw Pact forces invading West Germany and aiming to stop at the River Rhine by the seventh day. Other USSR plans stopped only upon reaching the French border on day nine. Individual Warsaw Pact states were only assigned their subpart of the strategic picture; in this case, the Polish forces were only expected to go as far as Germany. The Seven Days to the Rhine plan envisioned that Poland and Germany would be largely destroyed by nuclear exchanges and that large numbers of troops would die of radiation sickness . It

2002-550: The RE turn of FOR ces to GER many) was an annual exercise conducted during the Cold War by NATO . While US troops could be easily flown across the Atlantic, the heavy equipment and armor reinforcements would have to come by sea and be delivered to POMCUS (Pre-positioned Overseas Material Configured to Unit Sets) sites. These exercises tested the United States and allied abilities to carry out transcontinental reinforcement. Timely reinforcement

2079-681: The Soviet Politburo and military to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse of war , obscuring preparations for a genuine nuclear first strike. In response, the Soviets readied their nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert. This "1983 war scare" is considered by many historians to be the closest the world has come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The threat of nuclear war ended with

2156-470: The Soviet nuclear early warning system , showing the launch of American LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles from bases in the United States. A retaliatory attack was prevented by Stanislav Petrov , a Soviet Air Defence Forces officer, who realised the system had simply malfunctioned (which was borne out by later investigations). During Able Archer 83 , a ten-day NATO exercise simulating

2233-596: The Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) Headquarters in Casteau , north of the city of Mons . Able Archer's exercises simulated a period of conflict escalation , culminating in a coordinated nuclear attack . The realistic nature of the 1983 exercise, coupled with deteriorating relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of strategic Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, led some members of

2310-465: The Third World War , is a hypothetical future global conflict subsequent to World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). It is widely assumed that such a war would involve all of the great powers , like its predecessors, as well as the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction , surpassing all prior conflicts in geographic scope, devastation and loss of life. Since

2387-741: The United States Navy , the United Kingdom's Royal Navy , the Royal Canadian Navy , the French Navy , the Royal Netherlands Navy , and the Royal Norwegian Navy . As the largest peacetime naval operation up to that time, Exercise Strikeback was characterized by military analyst Hanson W. Baldwin of The New York Times as "constituting the strongest striking fleet assembled since World War   II". Exercise Reforger (from

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2464-551: The 300 nuclear weapons were targeted to destroy Soviet combat aircraft on the ground. The scenario was devised before the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles . It was also devised before US President John F. Kennedy and his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara changed the US Nuclear War plan from the 'city killing' countervalue strike plan to a " counterforce " plan (targeted more at military forces). Nuclear weapons at this time were not accurate enough to hit

2541-529: The Atomic Scientists now credits the political developments resulting from the Cuban Missile Crisis with having enhanced global stability. The Bulletin posits that future crises and occasions that might otherwise escalate, were rendered more stable due to two major factors: The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month undeclared military border war between the Soviet Union and China at

2618-526: The Ramadan War, or October War, began with a surprise invasion of Israeli-occupied territories by a coalition of Arab states, aided by the Soviet Union. Israel successfully counterattacked with the aid of the US. Tensions grew between the two superpowers: American and Soviet naval forces came close to firing upon each other in the Mediterranean Sea . Admiral Daniel J. Murphy of the US Sixth Fleet reckoned

2695-651: The Russians; the plane was in the region as part of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war , in which Turkey supported opposing forces. The incident was the first destruction of a Russian or Soviet Air Forces warplane by a NATO member state since the attack on the Sui-ho Dam during the Korean War in 1953. The incident led to numerous media and individuals commenting that it could have sparked and escalated into

2772-570: The U.S., the U.S.S.R., and China. CBS News war correspondent Bill Downs wrote in 1951, "To my mind, the answer is: Yes, Korea is the beginning of World War   III. The brilliant landings at Inchon and the cooperative efforts of the American armed forces with the United Nations Allies have won us a victory in Korea. But this is only the first battle in a major international struggle which now

2849-675: The UK being a nuclear weapons state in its own right; these were mainly deployed in Germany . In peacetime , the nuclear weapons stored in non-nuclear countries are guarded by US airmen though previously some artillery and missile systems were guarded by US Army soldiers; the codes required for detonating them are under American control. In case of war, the weapons are to be mounted on the participating countries' warplanes. The weapons are under custody and control of USAF Munitions Support Squadrons co-located on NATO main operating bases that work together with

2926-612: The USSR launched an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of all armed forces from Berlin, including the Western armed forces in West Berlin . The crisis culminated in the city's de facto partition with the East German erection of the Berlin Wall . This stand-off ended peacefully on 28 October following a U.S.–Soviet understanding to withdraw tanks and reduce tensions. The Cuban Missile Crisis ,

3003-530: The United Kingdom, and the United States), only the United States has provided weapons for nuclear sharing. As of November 2009 , Belgium , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands and Turkey are still hosting US nuclear weapons as part of NATO's nuclear sharing policy. Canada hosted weapons until 1984, and Greece until 2001. The United Kingdom also received US tactical nuclear weapons such as nuclear artillery and Lance missiles until 1992, despite

3080-524: The United States and China , have been perceived as potential flashpoints or triggers for a third world war. Time magazine was an early adopter, if not originator, of the term "World War   III". The first usage appears in its 3 November 1941 issue (preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941) under its "National Affairs" section and entitled "World War   III?" about Nazi refugee Hermann Rauschning , who had just arrived in

3157-594: The United States and NATO, including US president Joe Biden and NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg , have stressed the need to prevent the conflict escalating into a third world war, while also affirming that NATO members will defend each other. The US warned Russia's government that the country would suffer "catastrophic" consequences if it used nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Former CIA Director , David Petraeus , said NATO would likely respond by destroying all Russian forces in Ukraine. Several incidents have risked

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3234-403: The United States. In its 22 March 1943, issue under its "Foreign News" section, Time reused the same title "World War   III?" about statements by then- US Vice President Henry A. Wallace : "We shall decide sometime in 1943 or 1944   ... whether to plant the seeds of World War III." Time continued to entitle with or mention in stories the term "World War   III" for the rest of

3311-538: The Wartime Broadcasting Service that would occur after a nuclear attack. Operation Sandstone in Ireland was a top-secret British-Irish military operation. The armed forces from both states began a coastal survey of Britain and Ireland cooperating from 1948 to 1955. This was a request from the United States to identify suitable landing grounds for the US in the event of a successful Soviet invasion. By 1953,

3388-411: The birth of the modern state. Within the statist paradigm, only the state and its appointed representatives may bear arms and enter into war. In fact, war then became understood only as a conflict between sovereign states. Monarchs strengthened that idea and gave it the force of law . Any noble had been allowed to start a war, but European monarchs had to consolidate military power in response to

3465-480: The chances of the Soviet squadron attempting a first strike against his fleet at 40 percent. The Pentagon moved Defcon status from 4   to   3. The superpowers had been pushed to the brink of war, but tensions eased with the ceasefire brought in under UNSC 339 . The United States made emergency retaliation preparations after NORAD systems indicated that a full-scale Soviet attack had been launched. No attempt

3542-538: The co-operation agreed upon sharing information on wartime weather and the evacuation of civilian refugees from Britain to Ireland. Ireland's Operation Sandstone ended in 1966. In January 1950, the North Atlantic Council approved NATO 's military strategy of containment . NATO military planning took on a renewed urgency following the outbreak of the Korean War in the early 1950s, prompting NATO to establish

3619-479: The conclusion of the exercise on 11 November. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was proposed by US President Ronald Reagan on 23 March 1983. In the latter part of his presidency , numerous factors (which included watching the 1983 movie The Day After and hearing through a Soviet defector that Able Archer 83 almost triggered a Russian first strike) had turned Reagan against the concept of winnable nuclear war, and he began to see nuclear weapons as more of

3696-695: The contrary. Because of the invasion, at least fifty countries have provided some kind of military aid to Ukraine , including all member states of NATO . The Russian government has threatened retaliation against countries supplying military aid to Ukraine, and said it meant NATO was waging a "proxy war" against Russia. Senior Russian politicians—including president Putin, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and United Russia party leader Dmitry Medvedev —have made statements widely seen as nuclear blackmail . They have implied that Russia may use nuclear weapons if certain "red lines" are crossed, such as helping Ukraine to strike back at mainland Russia. Officials from

3773-447: The decade and onwards: 1944, 1945, 1946 ("bacterial warfare"), 1947, and 1948. Time persists in using this term, for example, in a 2015 book review entitled "This Is What World War III Will Look Like". Military strategists have used war games to prepare for various war scenarios and to determine the most appropriate strategies. War games were utilized for World War I and World War II. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

3850-544: The defense of Denmark and Norway from the Soviet attack in 1952. It was the first major NATO exercise. The exercise was jointly commanded by Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic Admiral Lynde D. McCormick , United States Navy , and Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Matthew B. Ridgeway , U.S. Army , during the autumn of 1952. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada , France , Denmark, Norway, Portugal , Netherlands , and Belgium participated. Exercises Grand Slam and Longstep were naval exercises held in

3927-621: The entire standoff, the Doomsday Clock , which is run by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to estimate how close the end of the world, or doomsday, is, with midnight being the apocalypse, stayed at a relatively stable seven minutes to midnight. This has been explained as being due to the brevity of the crisis since the clock monitored more long-term factors such as the leadership of countries, conflicts, wars, and political upheavals, as well as societies' reactions to said factors. The Bulletin of

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4004-510: The height of the Sino-Soviet split in 1969. The most serious of these border clashes, which brought the world's two largest communist states to the brink of war, occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island on the Ussuri (Wusuli) River , near Manchuria . The conflict resulted in a ceasefire, with a return to the status quo. Critics point out that the Chinese attack on Zhenbao

4081-464: The host nation forces. As of 2005, 180 tactical B61 nuclear bombs of the 480 US nuclear weapons believed to be deployed in Europe fall under the nuclear sharing arrangement. The weapons are stored within a vault in hardened aircraft shelters , using the USAF WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System . The delivery warplanes used are F-16 Fighting Falcons and Panavia Tornados . With

4158-417: The importance of non-state military actors, as is revealed in his conceptions of "the people in arms", which he noted arose from the same social and political sources as traditional interstate warfare. Practices such as raiding or blood feuds were then labeled criminal activities and stripped of legitimacy . That war paradigm reflected the view of most of the modernized world in the early 21st century, as

4235-474: The initiation of the Cold War arms race in the 1950s, an apocalyptic war between the United States and the Soviet Union became a real possibility. During the Cold War era (1947–1991), several military events have been described as having come close to potentially triggering World War   III. Even after the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some incidents afterward have been described as close calls as well. The Korean War

4312-430: The opponent's military. It is normally fought by using conventional weapons, not chemical , biological , radiological , or nuclear weapons . The general purpose of conventional warfare is to weaken or destroy the opponent's military, which negates its ability to engage in conventional warfare. In forcing capitulation , however, one or both sides may eventually resort to unconventional warfare tactics. The state

4389-470: The radar signature of the launch of a Trident SLBM missile. In response, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was summoned and the Cheget nuclear briefcase was activated for the first and only time. However, the high command was soon able to determine that the rocket was not entering Russian airspace, and promptly aborted plans for combat readiness and retaliation. It was retrospectively determined that, while

4466-471: The radio, but he followed Jackson's orders to encircle the airfield instead and later said in an interview that even without Jackson's intervention he would have refused to follow Clark's order. On 24 November 2015, at the border between Turkey and Syria, the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Sukhoi attack aircraft. The Turks claimed that the aircraft violated Turkish airspace , a claim denied by

4543-587: The rocket scientists had informed thirty states including Russia about the test launch, the information had not reached Russian radar technicians. On 12 June 1999, the day following the end of the Kosovo War , some 250 Russian peacekeepers occupied the Pristina International Airport ahead of the arrival of NATO troops and were to secure the arrival of reinforcements by air. American NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley Clark ordered

4620-519: The series and that it would be released on Blu-ray and DVD . Two sets were released on February 15 and April 12, 2011, respectively. The series was also streamed on the Anime Network and Hulu . The anime was licensed Australia and New Zealand by Siren Visual and in the United Kingdom by MVM Entertainment . The anime drew comparisons to the work of Hiroyuki Imaishi . World War III World War III ( WWIII or WW3 ), also known as

4697-535: The state of Soviet preparation for retaliation ceased upon completion of the Able Archer exercises. The Norwegian rocket incident was the first World War   III close call to occur after the Cold War had ended. This incident occurred when Russia's Olenegorsk early warning station accidentally mistook the radar signature from a Black Brant XII research rocket (being jointly launched by Norwegian and US scientists from Andøya Rocket Range ), as appearing to be

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4774-454: The system would allow the US to launch a massive first strike on the Soviet Union without any fear of retaliation. The SDI concept was to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles . The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO)

4851-408: The use of force against the Russians. Mike Jackson , a British Army general who contacted the Russians during the incident, refused to enforce Clark's orders, famously telling him "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you". Captain James Blunt, the lead officer at the front of the NATO column in the direct armed stand-off against the Russians, received the "Destroy!" orders from Clark over

4928-473: The use of their nuclear weapons. Exercise Able Archer was an annual exercise by the U.S. European Command that practiced command and control procedures, with emphasis on the transition from solely conventional operations to chemical, nuclear, and conventional operations during a time of war. "Able Archer 83" was a five-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) command post exercise starting on 7 November 1983, that spanned Western Europe , centered on

5005-437: Was "to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire ". The plan was rejected by the British Chiefs of Staff Committee as militarily unfeasible. Operation Dropshot was the 1950s United States contingency plan for a possible nuclear and conventional war with the Soviet Union in the Western European and Asian theaters. Although the scenario made use of nuclear weapons, they were not expected to play

5082-425: Was a critical part of the NATO reinforcement exercises. The United States needed to be able to send active-duty army divisions to Europe within ten days as part of a wartime NATO general deployment. In addition to assessing the capabilities of the United States, Reforger also monitored the personnel, facilities, and equipment of the European countries playing a significant role in the reinforcement effort. The exercise

5159-432: Was a political-military confrontation between the armed forces of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. at Checkpoint Charlie with both several American and Soviet/East German tanks and troops at the stand-off at each other only 100 yards on either side of the checkpoint. The reason behind the confrontation was the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin , and of post–World War II Germany . The Berlin Crisis started when

5236-405: Was a war between two coalitions fighting for control over the Korean Peninsula : a communist coalition including North Korea , the People's Republic of China, and the Soviet Union , and a capitalist coalition including South Korea , the United States and the United Nations Command . Many then believed that the conflict was likely to soon escalate into a full-scale war between the three countries,

5313-409: Was concerned that, with the enormous size of Soviet Red Army forces deployed in Central and Eastern Europe at the end of World War II and the unreliability of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin , there was a serious threat to Western Europe . In April–May 1945, the British Armed Forces developed Operation Unthinkable , thought to be the first scenario of the Third World War. Its primary goal

5390-432: Was estimated that NATO would fire nuclear weapons behind the advancing Soviet lines to cut off their supply lines and thus blunt their advance. While this plan assumed that NATO would use nuclear weapons to push back any Warsaw Pact invasion, it did not include nuclear strikes on France or the United Kingdom. Newspapers speculated when this plan was declassified, that France and the UK were not to be hit to get them to withhold

5467-420: Was first advocated by Plato but found more acceptance in the consolidation of power under the Roman Catholic Church . European monarchs then gained power as the Catholic Church was stripped of temporal power and was replaced by the divine right of kings . In 1648, the powers of Europe signed the Treaty of Westphalia , which ended the religious violence for purely political governance and outlook, signifying

5544-482: Was intended to ensure that NATO could quickly deploy forces to West Germany in the event of a conflict with the Warsaw Pact . The Warsaw Pact outnumbered NATO throughout the Cold War in conventional forces, and especially in tanks and armoured vehicles. Therefore, in the event of a Soviet invasion, in order not to resort to tactical nuclear strikes , NATO forces defending against a Warsaw Pact armored spearhead would have to be quickly resupplied and replaced. Reforger

5621-584: Was made to use the Moscow–Washington hotline to clarify the situation with the USSR and it was not until early-warning radar systems confirmed no such launch had taken place that NORAD realized that a computer system test had caused the display errors. A senator inside the NORAD facility at the time described an atmosphere of absolute panic. A GAO investigation led to the construction of an off-site test facility to prevent similar mistakes. A false alarm occurred on

5698-638: Was not merely a show of force. In the event of a conflict, it would be the actual plan to strengthen the NATO presence in Europe. In that instance, it would have been referred to as Operation Reforger. The political goals of Reforger were to promote extended deterrence and foster NATO cohesion. Important components in Reforger included the Military Airlift Command , the Military Sealift Command , and

5775-554: Was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative. NATO operational plans for a Third World War have involved NATO allies who do not have their nuclear weapons, using nuclear weapons supplied by the United States as part of a general NATO war plan, under the direction of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander . Of the three nuclear powers in NATO (France,

5852-417: Was to deter any potential future Soviet invasions; that by killing some Soviets, China demonstrated that it could not be 'bullied'; and that Mao wanted to teach them 'a bitter lesson'. China's relations with the USSR remained sour after the conflict, despite the border talks, which began in 1969 and continued inconclusively for a decade. Domestically, the threat of war caused by the border clashes inaugurated

5929-713: Was utilized being the Syrian Civil War ). Nuclear warfare has only occurred once: the American bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The state and Clausewitzian principles peaked in the World Wars , during the 20th century, but they also laid the groundwork for their dilapidation from nuclear proliferation . During the Cold War , the superpowers sought to avoid open conflict between their respective forces, as both sides recognized that such

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