Enterprise

November 1961

De: James Philip

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Welcome to the Timeline 10/27/62 prequel series COUNTDOWN TO WAR starting in October 1961 and concluding when the world goes mad during the last weekend in October 1962.

It is November 1961 and the doomsday clock is ticking.

In Berlin the tanks have pulled back from one Cold War flashpoint, Checkpoint Charlie but Thor and Jupiter medium-range ballistic missiles are still sitting on, or will soon be operational in England, Italy and Turkey and Soviet Leader Nikita Khruschev is still liberally declaiming threats to rain Armageddon upon the USSR’s foes.

In Washington DC the Kennedy Administration is preoccupied with Cuba, troubles in the deep South, and seemingly falling behind in the space race; it has problems enough at home and the mid-terms are already on the not so distant horizon. And besides, viewed from Capitol Hill, the frontline of the Cold War is an awfully long way away.

Not so for the RAF men manning the V-bombers and the Thor missile based in Eastern England who know that in the event of war four minutes is the best warning they are likely to get!

If only the world had known it, the countdown to war has reached eleven minutes to midnight…