Who wins a nuclear war?
The short answer is no one, but the world always feels as though it's teetering on the verge of a button press that would end life as we know it
Nuclear war is a prospect that is never too far away from being a major talking point. From the moment the USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, world superpowers have been racing to keep up with the number of nuclear weapons at their disposal.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is arguably the closest the world has come to nuclear exchanges. Tensions escalated to a point where the launching of nuclear weapons seemed almost inevitable, that was until Soviet Union leader Nikita Krushev ordered the stand down and dismantling of the weapons on the island of Cuba- missiles that had the USA firmly in their sights.
The middle decades of the 20th century had the world dangerously close to another world war. The Second World War, which was brought to an end by the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, claimed the lives of around 80 million people. There was a need for peace after six years of slaughter, but unfortunately within the next 15 years, conflicts in Korea and then Vietnam made headlines.
The world is still at war with each other, with conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war rarely away from news pages. World peace is sadly a utopian dream, and with war-mongering powers in charge and big businesses who can profit from the suffering of others in war, there is no real end in sight.
Just this month, it is said that Ukraine fired UK-supplied missiles into Russian targets. President Putin authorised a change to Russia’s nuclear doctrine which could have devastating consequences should anyone fire on them. According to the BBC, the changes now mean that a large attack on Russia with conventional missiles, drones or aircraft could meet the criteria for a nuclear response, as could an attack on Belarus or any critical threat to Russia’s sovereignty.
The looming threat of nuclear war will not go away, but surely even the most hell-bent warmonger can see that if military exchanges turn nuclear, there will be nothing left on earth to invade, occupy, or make money off.
Nuclear war and its impact is a well-covered topic in films, TV shows, books, and games. The breakdown of diplomacy is usually a step towards the button being pressed, and as soon as one nation launches one missile, the classic Mutually Assured Destruction Theory (MAD, ironic right?) takes centre stage.
The UK doesn’t have too much in the way of nuclear war-themed media, but one of the few examples it does have is truly terrifying. Released in 1984, the height of the Cold War, a documentary film called ‘Threads’ depicts what could happen to England in the event of a nuclear strike. It shows how life would be wiped from the face of the earth at a terrifying speed, and how those who are left would be far more unlucky than those killed in the attack.
It is programmes like this that give us a horrifying glimpse into how a nuclear war would bring the world to an end in a flash of scorching hot destruction. It furthermore adds an answer to the question I posed in the headline of this piece- absolutely no one wins in a nuclear war.
