The Mysteries of History (January 25 Edition)
Cultural Shifts and a Failure to Communicate
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana, 1905
1981 — Cultural Revolution Leader Condemned to Death
public domain image from wikimedia commons
“Chairman” Mao Zedong of China died in 1976. On this day in 1981, five years after his death, his widow Jiang Qing (aka “Madame Mao”) was sentenced to death for her alleged deep involvement and very active participation in the Cultural Revolution, a Mao-led operation that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and suffering of millions. Exactly two years later, her death sentence was changed to life in prison. She died while incarcerated in Beijing in 1991 at the age of 77, an apparent suicide.
Questions: What was the Cultural Revolution? Jiang Qing was Chairman Mao's fourth wife; what happened to his first three wives? How did the ideas behind the Cultural Revolution eventually become unpopular in China? How is this period in their history viewed in China today?1995 — Near-Miss Nuclear Strike
image generated using Bing Image Creator
A false alarm that could have led to calamity occurred on this date exactly thirty years ago: Russia’s early-warning radar system detected an unexpected incoming missile strike coming from near Norway (presumably from a nuclear submarine). The arrival of the missile was estimated to be only minutes away. For the first time ever, the nuclear briefcases carried by the Russian leader (President Boris Yeltsin at the time) and his top commander were activated.
Subsequently it was determined that the missile would not land in Russia, and then it was determined that it was not part of a surprise attack by the West. The missile turned out to be from Norway itself (from land, not sea), but it was carrying instruments to carry out scientific experiments and observations. Had this peaceful aspect of the missile not been realized, the Russians would have enacted a nuclear response or counterstrike within minutes.
So why had the Norwegians not informed other nations of this missile launch? Actually, they had: nine days earlier, they had notified 35 countries — including Russia — about it, but there was a “failure to communicate” (cue the scene from Cool Hand Luke): the Russian Defense Ministry neglected to inform those on duty at the early-warning center about it. Oops-a-daisy!
image of Paul Newman movie “Cool Hand Luke” is in the public domain, from wikimedia commons
Questions: If Russia had launched missiles, how many would it have been, and who would they have been aimed at? What would have been some possible repercussions of this deadly misunderstanding? How many nuclear weapons are there in the world? How many does Russia have? How many does Norway have? How many does the United States have? How many different countries have nukes, and how many are known or strongly suspected of trying to get them or build their own? To what end — defense or domination?
