Sunday, December 18, 2022

The Crisis

 There is a portion of this area of the War Museum set up to resemble a command centre, circa the 1960s, with several simulations of World War Three playing out on screens. It is a chilling but effective way to look at the Cold War.


A momentous time of perpetual tension and standoff. Many of you lived directly through it.


Some of the weaponry at the time, complete with a NATO war games exercise map.


This is the Centurion tank, a mainstay of NATO armies.


And of course air power was a critical factor.


The large object we see here is the nosecone of an Avro Arrow, with a model of the plane behind it. This was a Canadian initiative for a military interceptor. The scrapping of the program was one of the more appalling blunders in Canadian political history.


The Diefenbaker government had scuttled it, and then tried replacing it with the BOMARC missile program. Voters later replaced the Diefenbaker government.


The world was brought as close to the brink of nuclear was as ever with the Cuban Missile Crisis.


While the Cold War raged, a Canadian concept started to be realized: the peacekeeper.


This is the Ferret Scout car, a standard vehicle for UN peacekeepers.

44 comments:

  1. If only all countries recognised the role of the Peacemakers the world might be a safer place in which to live.

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    1. It's one of the best ideas we came up with, though it doesn't always work.

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  2. It must´ve been awful to live in fear and do testruns of the worse that can happen.
    Glad they came to their minds. Now we can only wait what Putin will do...

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  3. We are having a very cold war feeling here at the moment. Lots of support for Ukrainians in Sweden. Military spending through the roof. Not far from me at a big hotel, doctors and nurses from Ukraina are in Sweden for a week of "normal" life before going back home. Their stories are horrible to read.

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  4. Very different to what today's command centres would look like.

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  5. War and living in fear, the world needs peace. Have a great day and happy new week!

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  6. It is difficult to fathom the tension back then, even with the Russian madness going on today.

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  7. ...we seem to go from one crisis to the next.

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  8. I bet that command center exhibit is popular.

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  9. The cold war went on for a long time so there were many developments during the time. Lots of new technology. Lots of political maneuvering.

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  10. Great exhibit and photos of 'Command Center'

    Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative harbor)

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  11. Esas simulaciones, harán ver,la crudeza que hay en una guerra.

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  12. Das mit dem Krieg ist ja ein aktuelles Thema ich hoffe das der Kriegsverbrecher Putin keinen
    Erfolg mit seinem Angriffskrieg hat.

    Gruß
    Noke

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  13. We just had a peacekeeper killed earlier this week in Lebanon. His body is being spent home today, he was only 23 and was to be married next summer.

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  14. Ferret Scout War is an unusual name that I have ever come across. Scouting is a dangerous act but important.

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  15. My husband’s uncle did a peacekeeping mission in Cyprus.

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  16. In a way, the cold war is back in Europe. And I don't like that, because there are other problems that we could better spend attention and money on than war. But first Putin has to go back in his cage.

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  17. Exhibits like that help a person grasp more perspective about how we humans treat each other.

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  18. Yikes. Remember when we thought the Cold War was finally over?

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  19. ... but did/has the Cold War gone away?

    All the best Jan

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    1. It did, until Vlad weaseled his way into power with a chip on his shoulder for a perceived loss of face for Russia on the world stage.

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