WW3 II.

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World War II.

In the movie, "Dr. Zhivago", the good doctor asks the Red Commissar, "where is the front??" By front we of course mean the actual location of the fighting.

Well, one could also ask, "in WW3, where was the front??"

The front was literally all over the world and underneath and above.

The front was in outer space.

The various "spy" satellites used by each nation to keep tabs on one another's militaries. To detect missile launches and enable the actual counting of manned bomber aircraft, ICBM launchers, etc.

This is where the front was!

In 1976 is was reported that the Soviet Union, to test President Carter, "blinded" with intense laser beams, the U.S. satellites used to detect missile launches from the Soviet Union aimed at the U.S. Carter advised the Soviets NOT to repeat such shenanigans as this would be considered a "act of war"!!

The front was under the water [inner space].

For forty five years, there was a constant stalking, tracking, shadowing, and jostling under the worlds' oceans by the submarines of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Ramius in the movie, "Hunt For Red October" mentions this very fact.

This is where the front was!

The front was over the Arctic.

With U.S. bomber aircraft and their Soviet counter-parts constantly testing the air defenses of the other side for weakness. Flying toward the border of the opposition to see what sort of response would be encountered. Such as was done with the submarines testing one another. Parrying and searching for weakness that could be exploited come a SHOOTING WAR!! Such flights of U.S. aircraft in the 1950's did result in loss of American life. On the Soviet side, I am not sure of any losses??!!

This is where the front was!

The front was in the nefarious dealings of various intelligence agencies that attempted to uncover and ferret out the "secrets" of the other side. Methods employed included those "spy" satellites, traditional secret agents, and intercept operators sitting position ["pos"] at bases all over the world listening for and copying secret military traffic of the opposition.

This was where the front was!

The front was where there were intercontinental ballistic missiles [ICBM's] pointed at one each others nation, tipped with atomic weaponry. And with men on constant alert in underground silos ready to activate those missiles and fire them.

That was where the front was!

The front was on the border between West and East Germany. The ground forces of NATO and the Warsaw Pact confronting one another. A move [invasion] by Soviet forces from east to west ["Big Red moves west"] would have been responded to by the armies of the U.S., Britain, West Germany, and France [yes, them too]. NATO WOULD have used nuclear weapons to stop a Soviet invasion of western Europe.

[several points on the latter: I don't ever think ANYONE ever in the higher planning echelons of NATO even contemplated for a second a move by NATO in the other direction. That is to say, a NATO force initiating a military campaign against the Soviets. It COULD NOT AND WOULD NOT HAPPEN!! One one occasion, I saw a picture of Soviet military cadets being taught in a classroom. Someone must have goofed [perhaps not goofed??] and left a map on the wall that SHOWED THE INVASION ROUTES THAT A SOVIET FORCE WOULD HAVE TAKEN INTO WESTERN EUROPE!! THIS WAS THE NORTHERN ROUTE OF ADVANCE, THROUGHT THE NORTH GERMAN PLAIN, THROUGH THE BENELUX COUNTRIES INTO NORTHERN FRANCE. FOR SOME REASON THIS MAP WAS LEFT ON THE WALL AND INCLUDED IN THE PICTURE. WHAT IS ONE TO MAKE OF THAT!!]

coolbert.