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00:06Tonight on Secrets Declassified, the close calls that nearly triggered Armageddon and
00:12the doomsday plans designed to survive it.
00:16From the Soviet secret nuclear train.
00:19It looks like a normal railway car, but on the inside is Armageddon on rails.
00:24To NATO war games that pushed the Kremlin to red alert.
00:27The Soviets could have nukes in the air within 30 minutes.
00:32Or a Soviet submariner standing alone to prevent nuclear apocalypse.
00:38If he just follows orders, the planet is done.
00:42These are the astonishing and sometimes terrible things done by governments and the people who
00:47work for them.
00:48It's time to bring them to light.
00:59A moving target is harder to hit.
01:02So when the Kremlin wants to shield its nuclear launch sites from a US first strike, it doesn't
01:08just camouflage them.
01:10It puts them on wheels.
01:15It's late 1983 and the Kremlin is panicking.
01:19The US has just deployed new Pershing-2 missiles in West Germany.
01:24And the Soviets believe these missiles can hit Moscow in under 10 minutes.
01:29The communists are concerned that a surprise attack could take out all of their nuclear
01:34silos before they have an opportunity to counterattack.
01:38So the Soviets need a new mobile missile system that they can hide from the US and launch from
01:44anywhere.
01:45Soviet war planners find a solution hiding in plain sight.
01:50The Soviet rail system.
01:53The Soviet Union is enormous.
01:56It runs across 11 time zones and has 100,000 miles of railway running over it.
02:01This huge rail network is bigger than the US's entire interstate highway system.
02:06The thinking is that if they put an ICBM on a train, they can run it across all of this
02:11track, across 11 time zones, leaving the Americans never knowing just where it might actually be.
02:17The Kremlin hands the top secret project to a proven rocket scientist, Vladimir Utkin.
02:24Utkin is something of a genius.
02:25He's one of the best rocket scientists in the Soviet Union.
02:28His team has already built the Soviets' most powerful ICBM, a monster nicknamed Satan.
02:35Even Utkin is a little daunted by the task before him.
02:38He calls it amazing in its grandeur, which I'm pretty sure is Russian for this is insane.
02:44Utkin now has to design a missile that can be safely launched, not from a concrete silo,
02:50but from a train.
02:53At the time, the Soviet Union is using what's called a hot launch for ICBM rockets.
02:58Basically, this means that the engine ignites, and as it does, out come the exhaust fumes,
03:03and that's what's firing the rocket off into the air.
03:05These fumes coming out of the rocket can reach temperatures similar to that at the surface
03:10of the sun, around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
03:13So, what you're going to end up with is tracks and railroad cars that have been reduced to
03:19puddles of liquid metal.
03:20So, Utkin developed something called a cold launch, and this uses compressed gas to launch
03:25the rocket instead.
03:26Basically, think of it like popping the cork on a champagne bottle.
03:32Once it's safely in the air and away from the railroad car, it fires up its conventional
03:36engines and off it goes.
03:40It's a win for Utkin, but now he faces another challenge.
03:45Normal ICBMs are just too big to fit in a Soviet train carriage.
03:50To stay hidden, Utkin needs to fit his new missile system inside a standard-sized freight car.
03:55That's a problem.
03:57Freight cars are about 80 feet long, and Satan is 120 feet long.
04:03The math just doesn't work.
04:05Utkin's solution is ingenious.
04:08Now, Utkin can't shrink the rocket, nor can he expand the freight car.
04:13However, he could do something with the nose.
04:15So, he decides to make the nose collapsible.
04:18He creates a kind of origami design, made of corrugated metal, which folds down inside
04:24the rocket like an accordion.
04:26Once it's launched, compressed gases reinflate the nose cone, returning it to its perfect
04:32aerodynamic shape.
04:35Utkin calls his new missile the Molodet, rushing for good job.
04:40Now he just needs a train to put it on.
04:42So the Soviets create what is known as the combat railway missile system.
04:47It looks completely ordinary on the outside, but it's got a missile on the inside.
04:52This is Armageddon on wheels.
04:55When it's time for the missiles to launch, the first thing that happens is hydraulic
04:59legs extend out of the train and touch down on the ground in order to stabilize the train
05:04car.
05:05An arm comes out of the top to move any power lines out of the way.
05:09The roof splits open and the Molodet missile goes vertical and is ready to launch.
05:17Starting in 1987, the Soviets build 12 top secret nuclear ghost trains, which patrol the
05:24railways for years, completely unknown to the public, but not to the CIA.
05:30Only in 1999, the CIA declassifies its files on the Apocalypse Express.
05:38The files show that the CIA did know about these trains from their spies back in the 1980s.
05:46The files also revealed that the Soviet camouflage was startlingly effective.
05:52The U.S. knew that the trains existed, but frustratingly, they couldn't find them.
05:57So even if the U.S. struck all of their fixed silos, the Soviets would still be able to launch
06:03a devastating retaliatory strike from their hidden nuclear trains.
06:07The system worked perfectly.
06:12From doomsday trains to doomsday planes, when nuclear missiles start flying, most governments
06:18head underground, but not the U.S. president.
06:22He heads to a command center built to survive Armageddon, one that hides 30,000 feet up in
06:29the air.
06:34In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11th, there is absolute panic, and a bigger
06:39question starts to form.
06:41Will other attacks be coming?
06:43Just minutes after the assault on the Pentagon, observers in the capital are terrified by another
06:49potential threat in the sky.
06:51People spot this mysterious aircraft circling above Washington, D.C., like it's watching over
06:57the city in lockdown.
06:59The aircraft looks like a jumbo jet, with one key difference.
07:03If you look at the plane and you compare it to a traditional 747, there's a big hump on
07:09the back of the plane.
07:10Confusion turns to fear.
07:12News agencies scramble to find out if this aircraft is friend or foe.
07:18No.
07:19To calm the public, Pentagon sources come clean.
07:24The plane is one of theirs.
07:27It's President George W. Bush's wartime ride, an E-4B known to insiders as the Doomsday Plane.
07:39This is essentially a nuclear command and control in the air.
07:45Now, President Bush's secret apocalypse escape machine has been exposed to the world.
07:51With President Bush in Florida, its 9-11 mission is a mystery.
07:55People wonder if the government knew something was going to happen and launched the Doomsday
08:00Plane in advance, but in reality, it just so happens that the Doomsday Plane is actually
08:06engaged in a standard drill while the attacks are ongoing.
08:10Now, the present public want to know more about the plane.
08:14Is the strange hump concealing a weapons system?
08:18The government decides to open up.
08:22The administration gives journalists permission to film inside so the public can see the inner
08:28workings of the Doomsday Plane.
08:31The E-4B Doomsday Plane's been in service out of the public eye since 1980.
08:37Now, the government reveals it is a fully functional Pentagon in the sky.
08:44The Doomsday Plane can support up to 112 personnel.
08:48You've got a command center, a conference room, even a briefing room where the President
08:53can address whatever's left of the nation.
08:56Further back, you've got the operations area where 30 specialists sit glued to their screens
09:01monitoring intel and the status of every U.S. asset worldwide.
09:05One way to think of this thing is like an underground bunker with wings.
09:12The Pentagon also reveals what's inside the mysterious hump.
09:16It's the plane's vital heart allowing the President to command a nuclear war from the skies.
09:25Inside that hump is the most sophisticated communications suite that's ever been put into the air.
09:31It has 67 satellite dishes to ensure that even if one form of communication fails, there are lots of backups.
09:40The hump allows the President to speak to anybody, anywhere across the surface of the world, as long as they
09:46can answer a phone.
09:48If World War III breaks out, the most important people for the President to contact may not be on the
09:55surface, but lurking deep down at the bottom of the ocean.
10:01Coiled up in the belly of the doomsday plane is a five-mile-long wire antenna, and in a worst
10:08-case scenario, it can be unspooled behind the aircraft.
10:11The wire transmits very low-frequency radio signals.
10:15These radio signals are the only ones capable of penetrating beneath the surface of the water to communicate with U
10:22.S. nuclear-armed submarines.
10:24This simple wire lets the President give the subs that final apocalyptic order to retaliate and unleash hell.
10:35So, even if the nation is a graveyard, its capacity for vengeance is very much alive.
10:45The tragedy of 9-11 exposed the President's top-secret E-4B doomsday plane to the public.
10:52It's still on duty, but in a world of heightened tensions.
10:56In 2024, the Air Force awards a $13 billion contract to create an upgraded replacement.
11:05The details of those improvements remain a tightly guarded secret.
11:11Coming up, the Pentagon builds a wonder weapon so dangerous, they don't dare test it.
11:18This monster is an apocalypse machine powered by an unshielded nuclear reactor.
11:24And later, on the most dangerous day in history, a lone Soviet submariner must decide the fate of the planet.
11:33If he gives the word, he could start World War III.
11:45Nuclear weapons are designed to instill fear into the enemy.
11:48But in the 1950s, the U.S. builds an apocalypse machine of such awesome power.
11:55Even its makers are terrified to test it.
11:58They call it the flying crowbar.
12:04By 1957 in Washington, there's a new paranoia.
12:08The Soviets have just introduced the world's first ICBM, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.
12:13So now, the Soviets are capable of striking us first before we can retaliate.
12:18The Pentagon decides they need a wonder weapon.
12:21They want something so terrifyingly overwhelming that Moscow won't even dare start a war with the U.S.
12:28They turn to the home of the H-bomb, Lawrence Livermore Labs in California.
12:34At Livermore, they hand the responsibility for creating this monster machine to 37-year-old associate director Ted Merkel.
12:43Merkel assembles a dream team, the sharpest engineers and nuclear scientists he can find.
12:48Their job is to invent the most devastating weapon possible.
12:52The stakes are so high, he's given a budget of $230 million a year in today's money to bring this
13:01vision to life.
13:01The result should be so hellishly deadly that the mission is codenamed after the Roman god of the underworld, Project
13:11Pluto.
13:13Merkel envisions a missile bomber hybrid with no human crew, like a gigantic nuclear-armed drone.
13:20He wants it to be able to lurk for days at high altitude, and he wants it to pack not
13:25one, but 16 nukes.
13:27Soon Merkel settles on a design for the weapon.
13:31Based on a stainless steel shell nearly 100 feet long.
13:36It's brutally simple, designed for destruction, so Merkel calls it the flying crowbar.
13:44First, the crowbar needs a game-changing engine to make it airborne.
13:48To keep it in the air for days, carrying 50,000 pounds of bombs, Merkel comes up with a solution
13:55straight out of atomic age science fiction.
13:58He's going to power the crowbar using a nuclear reactor.
14:03Typically, a nuclear reactor has a lot of shielding so that people are protected from the radiation that it produces.
14:09But all that shielding is just too darn heavy for a missile.
14:13And given that this aircraft is unmanned, Merkel decides to just ditch the shielding and save all that weight.
14:19So now you have an unshielded nuclear reactor.
14:24By the early 1960s, Merkel's team has a full-scale engine prototype ready.
14:29Now they need to test it.
14:33You can't just fire up an unshielded nuclear reactor anywhere.
14:37You need a place where you can make a big, giant nuclear wasteland.
14:41So they find a location of eight square miles in Jackass Flats, Nevada.
14:48Once the reactor starts, the radiation will make it deadly.
14:52Merkel's team builds a thick-walled concrete bunker for the reactor to be tested inside of,
14:58and a second concrete bunker for his team to observe the tests.
15:03To solve the problem of how to move the reactor once it's running hot,
15:06they build a two-mile railroad track and its very own remote-controlled rail car to move it into position.
15:14On May 22nd, 1964, the Flying Crowbar's full-size nuclear reactor engine rolls out for its make-or-break test.
15:23The engine is a monster, nine feet long, five feet in diameter, weighing 10,000 pounds.
15:31When the test starts, the roar is deafening.
15:35The reactor glows as it hits 2,500 degrees.
15:38It's so hot that it melts lead bricks placed under the tracks.
15:44The test lasts for just five minutes.
15:48Project Pluto's nuclear-powered engine is a success.
15:52Once it's been deployed, it will drive the crowbar at Mach 3 on an apocalyptic multi-stage attack run.
15:59So there are four big threats associated with the Flying Crowbar.
16:03Number one is the shockwave it produces because the weapon is traveling at Mach 3.
16:08It's producing a shockwave that can flatten buildings.
16:12Number two is the unshielded nuclear reactor that's powering it.
16:16When it's flying, it's, of course, leaving a path of radioactivity as it flies.
16:21It's carrying a payload of 16 nuclear weapons.
16:25It can drop them one at a time, each with the power to destroy a city.
16:31And lastly, the crowbar itself is a bomb.
16:34So it can be programmed to target one final bullseye and take it out.
16:41It will be horrifyingly efficient.
16:44The nuclear reactor engine works on the ground.
16:48Now the Pluto team needs to flight test the Flying Crowbar in real-world skies.
16:54Where on earth can you flight test a weapon that devastating?
16:58The Nevada test range is way too close to Las Vegas, and even the Pacific test areas are too risky.
17:04While the Pluto team are grappling with this thorny problem,
17:08a newer, simpler missile steals the crowbar's thunder.
17:12While it was under development, we finished the development of our Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile.
17:18Once we had the Minuteman, we didn't really need the Flying Crowbar any longer.
17:23Only months after its successful reactor test, Project Pluto is quietly canceled.
17:28It has cost the equivalent of $2 billion.
17:32Project Pluto is not only shockingly expensive,
17:36it's a totally indiscriminate weapon of mass destruction.
17:40So the government buries the details under top-secret classification for decades.
17:45Finally, in 2015, the Department of Energy and the Air Force declassify an extraordinary document.
17:52It details how truly deadly the Flying Crowbar would have been.
17:57It shows the United States government was willing to try just about anything to give it an advantage over the
18:03Soviet Union.
18:04Project Pluto would have been one of the most devastating weapons ever created.
18:10Coming up, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet sub with nukes on board surfaces in the middle of the
18:18US battle fleet.
18:20The two crews are basically staring each other down.
18:29In the darkest hour of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the future of humanity hangs on a single Soviet submariner,
18:37stranded beneath the waves in order to fire a nuclear torpedo.
18:46It's October 1962.
18:48Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev has managed to have intermediate-range ballistic missiles placed in Cuba,
18:55just 100 miles off of the US coast.
18:58The Soviet Navy is also establishing a submarine base in Cuba.
19:04To reinforce the undercover Soviet forces there,
19:08Khrushchev orders the Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 to sail in secret to the island.
19:15Its captain is a man named Valentin Savitsky.
19:19Also on board is the cool-headed 36-year-old Commodore Vasily Arkhipov.
19:24For this special mission, B-59 is packing an extra punch.
19:29Alongside conventional weapons, it's loaded with a single nuclear torpedo,
19:34capable of destruction on par with Hiroshima.
19:40As B-59 is crossing the Atlantic,
19:44US spy planes spot the secret nukes Khrushchev has smuggled into Cuba,
19:49and all hell breaks loose.
19:52President Kennedy orders the Navy to surround the island with warships.
19:57Now, the submarine is heading straight into the Cuban Missile Crisis.
20:03Soon, destroyer escorts and anti-submarine units head to Cuban waters
20:07to stop any Soviet reinforcements from getting through.
20:10What this means for the B-59 mission is that now,
20:13they are sailing into a vastly more dangerous situation
20:16than the one that they thought they were sailing into
20:19when they departed the Soviet Union.
20:21The US Navy is watching the seas around Cuba, hunting for Soviet subs.
20:27On October 27th, the B-59 gets spotted.
20:31Its secret mission is exposed.
20:33And the most dangerous day in history begins.
20:38B-59 is running for its life,
20:41pursued by US destroyers and aircraft from a nearby carrier.
20:46The US Navy drops depth charges below,
20:49basically grenades that generate shockwaves
20:52to signal to the Soviets to come to the surface.
20:57The shockwaves violently shake the Soviet sub,
21:01and for the crew inside,
21:02it's akin to sitting inside of a metal barrel
21:06while somebody hits it with a sledgehammer.
21:11They're unaware that the United States Navy
21:13wants to drive them off without killing them.
21:16All they know for sure is that there are explosions going on around their sub.
21:21It has every appearance of war.
21:24Captain Savitsky decides that the US is coming in for the kill.
21:28He was given rules of engagement when he departed the Soviet Union,
21:32and the rules of engagement were,
21:33if they fire on you, you return fire.
21:35For him, the most effective weapon system available
21:38is a nuclear-tipped torpedo.
21:40He orders the weapon to be armed.
21:43This is terrifying.
21:45We effectively have a Soviet commander
21:47giving the order that has all the potential in the world
21:50to start World War III.
21:53However, Soviet launch protocol
21:55requires both senior officers to agree to fire the nuke.
21:59So now there's just one man
22:01who can walk humanity back from the edge of Armageddon.
22:06Commodore Vasily Arkhipov.
22:10Arkhipov isn't buying it.
22:11Arkhipov realized that if these guys wanted us,
22:14they could have had us from the start.
22:16But they're putting on a display.
22:18This is theater.
22:20Not shooting directly at you, but shooting near you.
22:23So he takes these explosions to mean
22:25that the Americans just want them to come up and surface.
22:29Arkhipov defies Captain Savitsky.
22:31He refuses to give permission to fire the nuclear torpedo.
22:36That single moment, that singular decision
22:39may very well have saved humanity's existence.
22:43With the future of the world hanging by a thread,
22:47submarine B-59 slowly ascends to the surface.
22:51B-59 finds itself surrounded by U.S. Navy warships
22:53that are not firing at it.
22:55There is no World War III going on,
22:57as they had been concerned might be the case.
22:59The two crews are basically staring each other down.
23:04They're right next to one another.
23:06The U.S. Navy doesn't board the sub,
23:08so they don't find out about the secret nuclear torpedo.
23:11The very next day,
23:13President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev
23:15cut a deal,
23:17and the Cuban Missile Crisis is over.
23:21B-59 sails back to Russia.
23:24Its nuclear torpedo is still a secret.
23:27For decades,
23:29no one in the West realizes
23:30just how close the world came to Armageddon.
23:34Then in 2002,
23:36on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
23:40experts get a stunning revelation.
23:44An insider's account
23:46that for the first time
23:47unveils the one man
23:48who prevented all-out nuclear war.
23:51It makes headlines around the world.
23:54The article reveals for the first time
23:56that Vasily Arkhipov saved the world that day.
23:59He was well within his rules of engagement
24:01to release that weapon.
24:03And if he had done so,
24:04the consequence would have been
24:05the Third World War.
24:09Coming up,
24:10physics students get
24:12an explosive homework assignment.
24:14Using books from the public library,
24:16they have to build a nuclear bomb
24:17from scratch.
24:26When the U.S. built
24:27the world's first nuclear bomb,
24:29it took a team of a half a million to make it.
24:32But in the 1960s,
24:34the government tasks
24:35a couple of recent graduates
24:36to design another one.
24:38Using nothing but a pad of paper,
24:41a pen,
24:42and a library card.
24:47It's a year after
24:48the Cuban Missile Crisis.
24:50President Kennedy
24:51is terrified
24:52of the proliferation
24:54of nuclear weapons
24:55around the world.
24:56He's thinking,
24:57it's not a case of
24:58if other nations
25:00will get nuclear bombs,
25:01but when.
25:02So the U.S. government
25:03needs to find out
25:04how easy or difficult
25:06would it be
25:06to actually create
25:08a working bomb.
25:09They commissioned
25:10Lawrence Livermore Labs
25:12in California
25:12to begin a top-secret experiment.
25:15And the goal is simple,
25:17to see if physicists
25:18with no prior weapons experience,
25:21no access to classified information,
25:24can design a nuclear bomb.
25:27First, they need guinea pigs.
25:29Sharp scientists,
25:31but ones who don't know the first thing
25:32about building a bomb.
25:34They recruit physics PhDs
25:36David Dobson
25:37and Robert Selden,
25:39chosen for being
25:40what the scientists call
25:41nuclear innocence.
25:44Then, they brief them
25:45on their top-secret science assignment,
25:48building an atom bomb
25:50from scratch.
25:52Dobson's first thought?
25:54Hmm.
25:55Sounds like a bit of a challenge.
25:58This working group
25:59is tucked into a small office
26:01at Livermore.
26:02Although they have security clearance,
26:04they don't have access
26:05to any classified information.
26:07And as this is the analog era,
26:09that means that they can go
26:10to the public library
26:11and they can go
26:12to the university library.
26:13All they have access to
26:15are published sources.
26:17But everything that this working group
26:19produces immediately becomes top-secret.
26:22First, the young scientists
26:23must decide
26:24what kind of atomic bomb to make.
26:27They've got two choices.
26:28They could attempt to build
26:29either a uranium-based bomb
26:31or a plutonium-based bomb.
26:33Uranium is a simpler bomb.
26:35You can just shove
26:36one mass of uranium
26:37into another
26:38to create an explosion.
26:40Plutonium is more powerful
26:42but harder
26:43because it requires
26:45this very precise
26:47three-stage explosion
26:49to make it work.
26:50They want to impress
26:51the scientists at Livermore
26:52so they go with plutonium.
26:55Next, they hit the library.
26:57As they seek a way forward,
26:59they're looking for
26:59whatever information
27:01they can find
27:01in the public domain.
27:03And they get lucky
27:04because they find
27:04this unclassified report
27:06from the Manhattan Project.
27:08So it's kind of like
27:09a road map.
27:11But the report
27:11is so heavily redacted,
27:13it's of little use
27:14in the end.
27:15Once they've gone
27:16through the document,
27:16it's all just nothing
27:17but disappointment.
27:20For months,
27:21they struggle,
27:22even feeling paranoid
27:23and wondering
27:24if they're being set up
27:25to fail.
27:25But still,
27:26they keep going.
27:28These are smart
27:29and resourceful men
27:29and they understand
27:30that they don't know
27:31anything about explosives
27:32and so they begin
27:33a process of educating
27:34themselves on the subject.
27:36Ironically,
27:37they get their biggest boost
27:38from Eisenhower's 1950s
27:39Atoms for Peace program,
27:41which declassified nuclear data
27:43for civilian purposes.
27:43So they repurposed
27:45that data for their weapon.
27:47Soon they begin
27:48to build their bomb,
27:50but their experiments
27:51aren't even allowed
27:52to leave paper.
27:54When these physicists
27:55want to run an experiment,
27:57they have to write out
27:58a very detailed report
27:59of exactly what they want
28:00to know and then give it
28:01to their Livermore handlers.
28:03They're never told
28:04whether or not
28:05the experiments
28:05are actually carried out.
28:06They just get a report
28:07back with the results.
28:10By 1966,
28:11after less than three years,
28:13Dobson and Selden are done.
28:16They have completed
28:17their plan for the device.
28:18It's too big to fit
28:20in a missile,
28:20but it is small enough
28:21to fit in the back
28:22of a pickup truck.
28:23And the plans
28:25are so detailed
28:26that they even boast
28:27that it could be completed
28:28and manufactured
28:29in a machine shop.
28:33Now the question is,
28:34will it work?
28:35Have they passed the test?
28:37No one at Livermore
28:39will tell them.
28:40Dobson and Selden
28:41get sent out on the road
28:42on a classified lecture tour.
28:44Government-approved scientists
28:46and military officers
28:47get a chance
28:48to question the men
28:48about their assumptions
28:49and methods.
28:50After their final Q&A,
28:52their Livermore handler
28:53pulls them to the side
28:55and lets them in
28:55on a little secret.
28:56He tells them
28:58that if their design
28:59is constructed,
29:00it would make
29:01a pretty impressive explosion.
29:03Dobson and Selden
29:04want to know how big,
29:06and the answer
29:07leaves them stunned.
29:09It would be an explosion
29:10comparable
29:11to the Hiroshima bomb,
29:12a 15 kiloton nominal yield.
29:15They've created
29:17a DIY apocalypse.
29:19It's a spine-chilling result.
29:22In less than three years,
29:24the young physicists
29:25have unlocked
29:26the secrets
29:27of mass destruction.
29:29Dobson and Selden's success
29:30has the government
29:32really concerned
29:33with nuclear proliferation.
29:34So they pushed forward
29:36with the Nuclear
29:37Non-Proliferation Treaty,
29:39which is signed
29:40by 59 nations
29:41in 1968.
29:43The government
29:44keeps the experiment
29:45top secret
29:46for four decades,
29:48until reports
29:49have declassified
29:50in 2003.
29:54Even then,
29:55the details reveal
29:56far too much
29:57about how to build
29:59a nuclear bomb.
30:00The results
30:01of this experiment
30:02are deemed
30:02so dangerous.
30:05Even when they're
30:06eventually declassified
30:07and released
30:07to the public,
30:08almost every page
30:10is redacted.
30:14coming up,
30:15to hide a nuclear test
30:17from the Soviets,
30:18the U.S. pushes
30:19their technology
30:20to the limit.
30:21They're going to try
30:22and launch
30:23a set of nuclear rockets
30:24off the deck
30:25of a ship
30:26in one of the roughest
30:27spots in the ocean.
30:35How do you defend
30:36against a nuclear missile
30:37screaming towards you
30:38at 15,000 miles per hour?
30:40In the 1950s,
30:42the Pentagon's solution
30:43is straight out
30:44of science fiction,
30:45a gigantic radioactive
30:47force field
30:48covering the whole
30:49of the United States,
30:51created by detonating
30:53nukes in space.
30:59By the late 1950s,
31:00in the Department of Defense,
31:02there is an anxiety
31:03that the Soviets
31:04can launch
31:05an ICBM attack.
31:06The United States
31:07is working on
31:08the same technology,
31:08but we're not there yet.
31:10What this begins
31:11is an era
31:12in our history
31:13during which
31:14intelligent people
31:15come up with ideas
31:17of how one might stop
31:19an ICBM attack.
31:21One of the people
31:22that comes forward
31:23is Nicholas Christophelos.
31:24He's a former
31:25elevator repairman
31:27and self-taught physicist
31:28who's now working
31:30at the University of California's
31:31radiation lab.
31:33Christophelos proposes a plan
31:35straight out of science fiction,
31:37a plasma shield in space.
31:40His plan is genius,
31:43but insane.
31:45Step one,
31:46explode a nuclear warhead
31:48300 miles above
31:50continental America.
31:51This will release
31:53a cloud of nuclear particles.
31:55Step two,
31:57let nature run its course.
31:58Christophelos believes
31:59that Earth's magnetic field
32:01is going to trap
32:02those particles
32:03above the continent,
32:04essentially creating
32:06a nuclear shield
32:07above America.
32:09If the Soviets
32:10were to launch
32:10a warhead
32:11through that shield,
32:12its electronics
32:13would be completely fried.
32:14This will destroy
32:16any nuclear weapon
32:17aimed at America.
32:19The two big issues
32:20are, number one,
32:21whether or not
32:22the Earth's magnetic field
32:23will be strong enough
32:25to hold that radiation
32:26in place
32:27to create
32:27the desired barrier.
32:29And the number two
32:30is whether or not
32:31it will be created
32:32in such a concentration
32:33that it can interfere
32:34with electrical systems
32:36on an ICBM.
32:37There's no way
32:37to prove this in a lab.
32:39The only way to do it
32:40is to give it a try
32:40and see what happens.
32:44President Eisenhower
32:45signs off on the plan.
32:47Project Argus
32:48is born.
32:50But it's not
32:51a tight deadline.
32:52The U.S. and Soviets
32:53are negotiating
32:54an end to nuclear testing,
32:56set to kick in
32:57by the end of the year.
32:59To beat that deadline,
33:01Argus has to be completed
33:03in just six months.
33:05That's not very much time,
33:06so the race is on.
33:08The next challenge
33:09is secrecy.
33:11If the United States
33:12were to conduct
33:13any kind of an experiment,
33:15launching a nuclear weapon
33:16into Earth orbit
33:18and detonating it,
33:19the Soviet Union
33:20would certainly walk away
33:22from the negotiating table.
33:23That means that
33:24they can't use
33:25their normal nuclear test sites,
33:27not the one in Nevada,
33:28not the one in the Bikini Atoll
33:30in the Pacific.
33:31They want a location
33:32that's so remote,
33:33the Soviet spies
33:34would never know
33:35the tests have ever occurred.
33:37They choose a spot
33:38in the South Atlantic,
33:38far out to sea,
33:40more than 600 miles away
33:41from the closest land.
33:43This is one of the most
33:45desolate stretches
33:46on the planet.
33:48Now Project Argus
33:49must attempt
33:50an unprecedented feat,
33:52launch nuclear missiles
33:53from a ship at sea.
33:56To beat the deadline,
33:57they'll have to do it
33:58in August.
33:59That's right in the middle
34:00of the South Atlantic winter.
34:02We're talking about
34:03the roughest seas,
34:05some of the biggest waves,
34:06some of the fastest winds
34:08on Earth
34:08and storms coming
34:09from out of nowhere.
34:11It is insane.
34:14In the early morning hours
34:15of August 27,
34:17battered by the wind and waves,
34:19the Argus team fires off
34:21their first missile.
34:24The conditions are too difficult.
34:26The missile veers off course
34:27and detonates too low.
34:30Days later, they try again.
34:32That one also fails.
34:34They've got one last chance.
34:38Their third and final attempt
34:39comes on September 6th.
34:41They launch the missile
34:42and hope that it works.
34:44The missile soars 300 miles up
34:46and detonates on target.
34:49The crewmen on deck look up
34:51and they see this beautiful
34:54man-made aurora
34:56stretching across the sky.
34:58It's from the radiation
34:59they just added
35:00to the magnetic field.
35:01A satellite flies right through it
35:04and it captures critical data
35:06and beams it right back down
35:08to mission control
35:09ready for analysis.
35:11The good news?
35:13Christophelos is definitely
35:14onto something.
35:15The explosion does create
35:17a measurable cloud
35:18of radioactive particles
35:20in space.
35:20This becomes a new phenomenon
35:22that is known
35:23as the Christophelos effect.
35:26There's bad news too.
35:28The Christophelos effect
35:30is nowhere near strong enough
35:31to knock out a missile.
35:33Project Argus ends up costing
35:35$100 million in 21st century dollars.
35:38Within a year of the test,
35:39the project is canceled.
35:42Argus doesn't work,
35:43but the Pentagon manages
35:45to keep it a secret.
35:46That's about to change.
35:49New York Times reporters
35:50get wind of the story,
35:51but the government convinces them
35:52to sit on it
35:53for national security reasons.
35:55Then when government scientists
35:56start pushing to release
35:57the Argus data,
35:59the New York Times
35:59doesn't want to be scooped,
36:00so it breaks the story.
36:12It turns out that primarily
36:14because Argus failed,
36:15it does not derail
36:17the negotiations
36:18toward the Limited Test Ban Treaty,
36:20which becomes a reality in 1963.
36:22And from that moment forward,
36:23there will be no more
36:24atmospheric nuclear testing,
36:26and there will also be
36:27no more nuclear blasts in space.
36:31coming up.
36:34When NATO war games
36:35get too realistic,
36:37the Soviets prepare to strike.
36:39Soviet high command
36:40starts moving into
36:41their underground bunkers.
36:42Moscow is freaking out.
36:49In 1983, thousands of NATO troops
36:53mobilize across Europe.
36:55Nuclear weapons are armed
36:57and loaded onto aircraft.
36:59The impossible question
37:01facing the Kremlin,
37:02is this another military exercise,
37:05or the opening move
37:07of World War III?
37:11In 1983,
37:13Ronald Reagan referred to
37:14the Soviet Union
37:15as the evil empire.
37:16For the United States
37:18to demonize the Soviets
37:19in that kind of fashion
37:20suggested that
37:21Reagan was taking on
37:22the Cold War
37:23as kind of a crusade.
37:25Many in the U.S.
37:26recognize this
37:27as simple
37:27saber-rattling.
37:29However,
37:30in Moscow,
37:31they're convinced
37:31that, in fact,
37:32the United States
37:33is on the war path.
37:35It's a powder keg
37:37of paranoia
37:38into which NATO
37:39is about to drop
37:40a lighted match.
37:42On November 7th,
37:45senior officers gather
37:46at NATO HQ in Belgium,
37:48ready for the culmination
37:50of their annual war games,
37:52an exercise known as
37:54Abel Archer.
37:56What Abel Archer
37:58is designed to do
37:58is to mimic the reality
38:00that most everyone assumes
38:02will be how World War III begins.
38:04with a Soviet
38:05and Warsaw Pact invasion
38:06across the Fulta Gap
38:07of Western Europe,
38:08which would be immediately
38:09reacted to
38:10by a NATO-United States
38:13nuclear response.
38:15Crucially,
38:16this is not
38:17just a paper exercise.
38:19For the first time,
38:19these are full-on war games
38:21where they have soldiers
38:22in the field
38:23and they're going through
38:24the entire exercise
38:25as though the Soviets
38:26have, in fact,
38:27crossed into NATO territory,
38:29all the way up to where
38:30NATO would need to respond
38:31with a nuclear attack.
38:35To the Soviets watching,
38:37Abel Archer soon feels
38:39dangerously different
38:40from previous war games.
38:42As Abel Archer starts,
38:45NATO rolls out
38:46a new encryption system,
38:48and that's exactly
38:49the sort of thing
38:50the Soviets see
38:51as a warning sign
38:53of an impending conflict.
38:55NATO forces did
38:57exactly what they would have done
38:58in a real wartime scenario.
39:00they actually moved
39:01the NATO-functioning headquarters
39:02to a new location,
39:03and NATO bases
39:05all around the world
39:06had their alert statuses
39:07increased in a way
39:08they had never done before.
39:11To the Soviets,
39:12that's another red flag
39:14that war is imminent.
39:15Margaret Thatcher
39:16and the other political leaders
39:17are going through
39:17the process
39:18that they would go through
39:19in case of NATO
39:21and the United States
39:22authorizing a nuclear first strike
39:24against the Soviet Union.
39:26Soviet agents in Europe
39:27are reporting this
39:28back to Moscow,
39:29and Moscow is freaking out.
39:31As far as they're concerned,
39:31this looks like
39:32exactly the scenario
39:33that they would expect
39:34from NATO attacking them.
39:36Not an exercise,
39:37so they see
39:38the beginning of the end.
39:40In a nuclear standoff,
39:43when one superpower
39:44is super scared,
39:45everybody should be super scared.
39:50Hour by hour,
39:51Soviet intelligence
39:52delivers more terrifying
39:54details to Moscow.
39:56The Soviets can see
39:57through satellite imagery
39:59and even spies on the ground
40:01that American bomber aircraft
40:04are loading up.
40:06What they don't know
40:07is that the aircraft
40:08are loaded
40:09with training warheads.
40:11Everything indicates
40:12that there's a nuclear strike
40:14inbound towards
40:15the Soviet Union.
40:16Soviet high command
40:17starts moving
40:17into their underground bunkers.
40:19They have their fighters
40:20in Poland and East Germany
40:21start loading their planes
40:22with live nukes.
40:24In bunkers across
40:25the Soviet Union,
40:26ICBM crews are preparing
40:27their own mists to launch.
40:29The Soviets could have nukes
40:30in the air
40:31within 30 minutes.
40:32The world is now teetering
40:34on the edge of apocalypse,
40:36but NATO doesn't know it.
40:39Yet.
40:41At the Soviet embassy
40:42in London,
40:42an urgent telegram
40:43hits the desk
40:44of KGB station chief
40:45Oleg Gordievsky.
40:47It's a desperate message
40:48from Moscow to all stations.
40:50Drop everything you're doing
40:51and look out for any indications
40:53of an imminent attack.
40:54They were convinced
40:56that World War III
40:57was about to begin.
40:59Oleg Gordievsky,
41:01however,
41:01is hiding a secret.
41:03What the Soviets
41:04don't know
41:05is that Gordievsky
41:06is a double agent.
41:07He's secretly working
41:08for the British
41:09and he's a very highly
41:10placed asset for them.
41:13Gordievsky
41:14realizes the danger,
41:15so he immediately
41:16contacts his handlers
41:18in British intelligence
41:19and passes on
41:20the information.
41:21Gordievsky tells them
41:23the Soviets think
41:24this is a real world activity,
41:26not a war game.
41:28He's trying to convey
41:29that the Soviets
41:30are prepared to retaliate
41:32and might even panic
41:33and launch a first strike.
41:36The warning shoots up
41:38the chain of command
41:38in London,
41:39then to D.C.,
41:40and news of the critical situation
41:43is delivered straight
41:44to the president.
41:46Reagan realizes,
41:47oh my gosh,
41:48they're more afraid of us
41:50than we are of them.
41:52On November 11th,
41:54Abel Archer is wrapped up
41:55and NATO forces
41:56are ordered to stand down.
41:57Moscow breathes
41:58a huge sigh of relief.
42:00The Soviet war machine
42:02is also back down
42:03and World War III
42:05does not start.
42:06The whole event
42:07shakes Reagan to his core
42:09and he launches
42:10a new diplomatic effort
42:11to ease tensions.
42:12This ultimately culminates
42:14in the end of the Cold War.
42:16For decades,
42:17details of the exercise
42:18and the terrifying
42:19Soviet response
42:21are buried
42:22under top-secret classification.
42:24And they'd be there still,
42:25but for the efforts
42:26of one persistent investigator.
42:29Researcher Nate Jones
42:30spends 12 years
42:31sending Freedom of Information requests.
42:33And in 2015,
42:35he gets his response.
42:39This declassified report
42:41reveals just how terrifyingly close
42:43we came to World War III.
42:49From doomsday weapons
42:50to apocalyptic close calls,
42:53governments have long covered up
42:55how near we've come
42:56to Armageddon.
42:58Only individual human courage
43:00and sheer good fortune
43:01have allowed us
43:03to escape disaster.
43:05So far.
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