America "Planned to Nuke the Moon"

[dyre]

The US had lots of plans during the Cold War. I believe there were even those calling for nuclear war in the 50s because we probably could've wiped out the Soviets while being hit by a minimal amount of their nukes (as they didn't have any effective delivery systems yet). Which, when you think about it, is a lot worse than nuking the moon.

There's a big difference between plans and policy though, thank God.

 

[Disturbed-Hell]

Nuke the moon... Huh. And here I was thinking I was crazy. But really, why the moon? Why not in space, where it wouldn't cause any particular damage and be even more visable?

 

[BlumiereBleck]

It was only a matter of time, those Pinko Commie Moon-People needed a nuke!

 

[Jingle Fett]

That's what they say. But we all know they were actually gunning for the space nazis on the dark side of the moon. The nazis themselves beat us to it though.

(that's from Iron Sky in case anyone was wondering)

 

[Soviet Heavy]

"Sir, are you suggesting we blow up the moon?"

"....Would you miss it? Would you miss it?"

Your avatar is my reaction.

The obvious answer to this theory.

 

[roushutsu]

I guess that explains where Sega got that idea for Sonic Adventure 2.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Nah I bet the real reason was that they hated tidal waves and surfers!

because fuck the freedom hating tides!

This is what happens when you build a society on waving your collective giant penis extensions.

 

[Woodsey]

Really? The Sun? They're the American (BRITISH FINE, they're still popular in America) equivalent of the Daily Mail, only worse. I'm not trusting their reporting.

The Daily Mail is definitely worse, if only because it's far more adamant in presenting itself as a SRS BIZNIZ paper. The Sun is FHM parading itself as a paper, The Daily Mail is your sexually abusive uncle thinking he's Jeremy Paxman and writing a paper.

Still, bullshit.

 

[TakerFoxx]

And we would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those etc. etc.

 

[Storm Dragon]

I think it was a good plan, we need to take that thing out before the Anti-Spirals get the chance to drop it on us.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Really? The Sun? They're the American equivalent of the Daily Mail, only worse. I'm not trusting their reporting.

They're actually the British equivalent of the Daily Mail.

Technically they're not, though, as the Daily Mail is also British.

Damn Yanks, trying to steal our hilariously bad tabloids!

I've been in the UK long enough to know that our stealing of the daily mail and the sun would be of great value to your society as a whole.

OT: Cracked already had an article on this. Too slow, Shit Brits!

 

[Terminate421]

How come I am reminded of a scene in Monsters Vs. Aliens where the president is about to hit the "fire all nukes" button when attempting to get a coffee?

 

[Dudeman325]

Wow, I haven't thought about IMAO in years...

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Such a slow news day for The Sun they start dragging shit up about the 1950's...that's kind of tragic. They did have the self restraint not to photoshop tits onto the moon so well done them.

 

[Daveman]

Yeah, I read that in a book all about the crazy shit America wanted to do with Nukes. Also, at one point nuclear explosions was part of their space exploration plans. The idea being to basically make a spaceship with a mahusive plate at the bottom and detonate nukes successively under the ship to launch the ship into space. Works too, they did practice runs with models, and it would make huge space exploration much easier as the fuel would be way smaller. Slight downside to this method of propulsion was that it would irradiate the planet to apocalypse levels. Still, cool idea. No idea why this is news though...

 

[Rednog]

People calling America stupid...yet reading it as America trying to destroy the entire moon.
It kind of makes sense, why blow up a nuke on earth and irradiate a massive chunk of soil when you can toss one up at the moon (guessing they didn't have the remote technology to set it off somewhere in space), a single nuke isn't going to take out the damn moon.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

"Yeah, fuck the moon! We don't need no tidal control; tidal control's dirty hippie Communist bullshit! Jesus is gonna keep the seas in check! Yes he will, ma'am! Hallelujah!"

Honestly, this is just stupid. "See that, Mikhail? I can blow up a hole in the Moon and you can't! SICK BURN!"

Todd Ingram wouldn't have been impressed. He PUNCHED a hole in the Moon for a girl.

 

[War Penguin]

We're Earthlings, let's blow up Earth things.

I feel like I'm the only one who got that reference... Shame, really. :/

Here's what he's referencing... probably.

 

[beastro]

"Planned" as in look into how feasible it would be for a study and then shelved.

This is how all crazy "Plans" work out. It's no different than the CDC spending some time to look into how to handle a zombie outbreak: It's a change of pace, waaay out there and fun to see what the nuts and bolts of it would pan out in real life.

Does that mean the CDC has ever seriously prepared for a zombie outbreak?

No.

Did the USN seriously look at building the Tillman battleships?

No.

It was to see what the crazy stuff they design that could fit through the Panama Canal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_battleship

Did the US plan to invade Canada in the 1930s?

No.

But they made sure they had a plan if the by some chance in a blue moon the US actually went to war with the British Empire.

The latter is very relevant as this "nuke the moon" thing is spat about to drum up Anti-Americanism just like Canadian journalists will "discover" War Plan Red every few years to drum up the original Canadian nationalism: Anti-Americanism.

 

[DoPo]

And even with the lower yield some scientists feared the bomb could IGNITE THE ATMOSPHERE.

That was actually the first A-bombs that scientists feared would burn the atmosphere, not the Czar bomb in particular.