Part 1: Two minutes from a Nuclear World War
When I get a question from the younger generation
on the lines of "How do you feel now about events in the Cold War?” I
usually look them straight in the eye and say "I feel that it is a miracle
that I am able to stand here and talk to you". Seeing the startled look on their faces, if
they are sufficiently interested, I go on to outline just a few of the events
which "nearly blew us all to Kingdom come". The first big scare came early in the Arms
Race, when computers were a lot less sophisticated than they became later
on; the watchdog computers in the USA
predicted that a shower of Russian missiles were on the way. Fortunately it was
discovered, before the countdown was completed, that the "missiles"
were in fact "meteorites". A
similar scare occurred a year later when the computer interference turned out
to be a "flock of geese" then shortly afterward was termed a
"moon echo".
We all know that the Cuban Crisis made the world
hold its breath. The outcome was hailed as a victory for the United States as
the Soviets withdrew their missiles, but behind the scenes there were frantic
negotiations between the adversaries; in return for the Soviet decision, the
USA had to withdraw their missiles from Turkey, and their naval fleet from
certain waters in the Far East. However,
some years later the public were completely unaware of a stand-off, every bit
as dangerous, which occurred in the middle of the Atlantic. The Soviets lined
up a row of nuclear submarines 400 miles off the coast of America. The Americans threatened to blow them out of
the water unless they were removed. What went on thereafter remains a mystery,
but not long afterwards the Soviets announced that one of their submarines was
missing. The others we knew had by then
been removed.
Some years later the now sensitive American
computers picked up what was thought to be heat from the launch of Soviet
missiles. The red telephone link between
the two superpower leaders was now in operation, and the panic was quickly
dampened down when it was discovered the heat was the result of a fire on a
pipeline taking oil from Siberia to Moscow. Two events which occurred nearer
the end of the Cold War eclipsed all the others. The first involved a NATO
fleet which gathered off the north-east coast of Scotland. Before it left,
American jets from their carriers carried out mock bombing raids on villages
along the east coast of Sutherland, which caused much alarm, some villagers
feeling it was the real thing. This convoy, dominated of course by the
Americans went full steam ahead towards the Russian coast and the sensitive
Murmansk peninsula where a lot of their nuclear weapons were held. Only after the end of the Cold War did we get
to know from a former KGB officer that the order to blow the fleet out of the
water was only cancelled at the very last moment. Had it happened it would have heralded the
start of World War III.
The last and most serious event was almost
farcical in its outcome, and shows how close we came to nuclear annihilation.
All the linked American computers showed the same picture, a shower of incoming
missiles heading for the United States. The full launch countdown was put into
operation. At Headquarters where the final button would shortly be pressed
making the launch irreversible, a young officer who had only arrived from
Training School that day, suddenly said "Wait a minute; I've seen that
before, it's from a training tape!"
The operation to launch was cancelled 2 minutes 12 seconds before the
final signal would have been given. It
emerged that a training tape had been fed into the live circuit in error!
Part 2: Superpower Propaganda
We were well aware during the Cold War that
propaganda was rife by both "East" and "West". In the UK we were told how the poor people
behind the Iron Curtain were kept entirely ignorant of what the Kremlin was
doing, and of course we always had reservations
about what the American public were told, which persists to this
day. Well, from my observations over the
years this secrecy code seems to be an obsession with the British
Establishment!
During the Cold War, CND got a lot of information
about what it was seeking from the USA and Canada, and what may surprise a lot
of people from the Soviet Union which periodically released accurate figures of
the missiles they possessed. During the
Cold War a leading local Tory approached me and told me that the Soviets were
launching 2 aircraft carriers and 4 nuclear submarines every week, and in case
we were attacked from the Atlantic we must have all our nuclear weapons ready
to be launched at a moment's notice.
Ignoring the fact that all our weapons were
pointing the wrong way, I asked him how firing off all our nuclear weapons
would protect us, and was it not the case that because of these weapons, and of
course the 50 American bases spread around Scotland, that made us a
target? Did he not know I also asked
that the noisiest of the aircraft screaming above our heads every day and
dumping their bombs on the Tain Range were American F1-11s, and were rehearsing
flying below the Soviet radar to make a surprise attack on the Soviet Union,
which would start World War III.
I don't think this chain of thought had ever
entered his head. The truth is that the
Soviet nuclear weaponry was always about 5 years behind that of the USA, but as
each new type of missile was created by the Americans, the Soviets followed
suit, with the exception of the neutron bomb, which if exploded in the air
would kill all human life below it with its deadly rays, leaving everything
else undamaged. The Soviets named this "The Capitalists Bomb".
The British media often portrayed the Soviet
threat as a huge Russian bear with claws outstretched towering above this poor
defenceless country. This was even shown
on BBC TV in a programme showing how our Tornado aircraft were constantly
intercepting Soviet jets attempting to fly into our airspace, whereas the fact
was that 99 per cent of our Tornados were being trained in low flying to
penetrate the Soviet Union below its radar defences.
As for current propaganda, I have a penfriend in
Washington DC (where big protests were made daily against the Iraq War) who
regularly sends me cut-outs from newspapers from all over the USA. What has surprised me is that in so many of
these, serious questions have been raised about the Lockerbie trial and the
guilty verdict reached on Megrahi, which of course on this side of the Atlantic
we have never heard about.
Part 3: The Worst of the Dirty Tricks
We only know a fraction of what went on during the
Cold War as the two Super power blocks bid for military superiority over each
other. The American spy plane which was shot down by the Russians, with the
pilot paraded for all to see, was an event they tried quickly to forget. There
were however two dirty tricks by the Americans, one of which plunged the depths
of depravity. Both involved forthcoming
elections in neutral countries.
The first involved Sweden. Elections were due and opinion polls were
showing that for the first time the "Left” would gain a decisive
victory. A week before the election the
Government of the day announced that they had trapped a Russian Spy submarine
in the waters near Stockholm having sealed off the exits. The Russians immediately denied that they
had any submarines anywhere near the area.
This came across strongly in the Soviet press, and none more so than the
"Soviet Weekly" published in English. Now watching Soviet propaganda over the
years, when this was rumbled it always ceased, so I became suspicious on the
persistence of the Soviet denials. The
day after the elections the submarine was allowed free passage into the
Baltic. The result of the election was a
win for the "Right". The
issue was never spoken about again.
There was an occurrence in Japan which had
similarities, but of a much more serious nature. Again the "Left" were predicted to
win in the approaching elections and whilst Japan was a neutral country, the
Americans did not wish to lose whom they regarded as an ally in seeing what the
Russians were up to.
The Americans had planes, used for both military
and civil purposes which were practically identical. One of these military planes flew into Soviet
air space towards their sensitive area around Vladivostok. It was immediately intercepted by Soviet
jets and escorted out of the area. Two
hours later another jet of similar design flew into the same sensitive area.
The pilot did not respond to messages, so the Soviets shot it down. It contained over 100 civilian passengers,
mostly Japanese. Former American
President Nixon had been told not to go on that flight (shades of
Lockerbie?). The outcome of the
election was that the "Left" had been routed. An American Senator, who said that he would
never rest until he found out who was responsible for interfering with the
internal workings of the fated plane, was found dead in suspicious
circumstances two weeks later.
Part 4: Phone Tapping and Censorship
The first CND groups in the Highlands were formed
in Alness, Dingwall and then Inverness.
We took the film "The War Game" around the Highlands to towns
and villages with new groups forming wherever we went. We went on to reach a total of 22 groups
with total membership of over 2,000.
Situated so far apart (e.g. 50 miles from Dingwall to Ullapool) we
decided to form a Highland Federation of CND Groups and hold monthly meetings
at different venues (around 50 people usually attended), with the host group
accommodating the visitors, so many a ceilidh went on long into the night.
Bruce Kent, whom I took around on his first
Highland tour, was puzzled how, wherever we went, be it Cromarty, Fort William
or Stornoway we all knew each other! I
became the Highlands & Islands delegate to Scottish CND and went on to
become a member of their Executive and Convener of the influential Campaigns
Committee.
We all soon became aware of a hollow sound when we
phoned each other, or even an echo of our voices coming back. We felt our phones were being tapped. We
didn't need to wait long for our fears to be confirmed. One evening I was speaking to a colleague in
Edinburgh (we had a fixed time for phoning each other) but as there was not
much new news to talk about that night and the line was bad, we decided to hang
up, but before we could do so a young voice said "Sir, may I have your
permission please to switch this recording to the other channel". There was a "click" and the line
became crystal clear.
The
Federation combated this by using public telephone kiosks and phoning each
other at set times. A few years later it
seemed for a while that my telephone line was clear, but one evening I received
a strange phone call. A caller with a
slow, broad, Scottish accent said "John, is that you, it’s me". I hadn't a clue who this "me" might
be, but I said "Yes, I'm here".
The caller then said "Well I have news for you; the woodpeckers
haven't gone away you know. A member of
the greater spotted woodpecker group took up residence 60 paces from where you
are now standing in a South South West direction yesterday".
I thought at first that this was a silly prank
then suddenly the word "woodpecker" came into my mind, yes this was
the code name of the Soviets "Over The Horizon Radar" which came from
behind the Urals to try and intercept military telephone conversations or what
our own intelligence services had picked up.
The 60 paces took me across the road to the foot of the telephone pole
where obviously a new listening device had just been installed. I keep this caution until this day, talking
on the phone to one of our MSP's recently, we fixed a time for him to call me
on a subject which we did not wish to disclose.
The final incident was somewhat amusing. A new road, the A835, to replace the old
single track was being constructed outside the front of the house and in the
process the telephone line to the house was cut in error. The local BT engineer came quite soon
afterwards but said, on giving lots of apologies, that he would have to consult
his manager. So his boss arrived a
couple of hours later but left quickly without commenting. Finally, late in the
afternoon, a gentleman in a hand-tailored suit and collar and tie
appeared. He looked out of place with
the tin hat perched on his head and looked a bit embarrassed as I watched him
climb up the pole. He didn't utter a
word. The local engineer, whom I knew,
told me that he had come up all the way from Perth!
Some 30 years ago I was invited to address the National Conference of the Scottish National Party on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The SNP Conference was nothing like what you will see these days on TV, they were much smaller of course, and everyone seemed to know each other, so I was greeted with much interest and curiosity.
Some 30 years ago I was invited to address the National Conference of the Scottish National Party on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The SNP Conference was nothing like what you will see these days on TV, they were much smaller of course, and everyone seemed to know each other, so I was greeted with much interest and curiosity.
My speech was listed to be broadcast live on BBC
TV which added to the atmosphere. I
began by telling the audience that when the American Generals gathered in the
Pentagon to rehearse their procedure for fighting and winning a nuclear war in
Europe, and in so doing using millions of human lives like pawns in a game of
chess, our country, Scotland, merely referred to as Section 75, would be wiped
off the map in a matter of minutes.
I was only half-way through my first sentence when
the BBC faded me out, and replaced my broadcast with an unscheduled edition of
"Andy Pandy". My
father-in-law, not known for his interest in politics, however, had sat himself
down in front of the TV with a wee dram by his side. My mother-in-law told me later that when I
was faded out he got to his feet and had she not been there he would have put
his boot through the telly! Not at all
characteristic! I am sure a lot of
others felt like doing the same.
Part 5: The Arrival of Trident at Dounreay
When it became public knowledge that the middle
section of a Trident submarine complete with nuclear reactor would be coming to
Dounreay to be tested in the Nuclear Propulsion Test Establishment, known
locally as HMS Vulcan (situated next door to the Dounreay Experimental Fast
Breeder Reactor), the Highland Federation of CND Groups met to discuss what to
do. It was decided somewhat reluctantly
that as Trident would come ashore on nearby Sandside Bay on a Wednesday and be
safely within Vulcan the following day, it would not be possible in the short
time available to organise a meaningful demonstration in an isolated spot many
miles from the main population centres.
However a much smaller demonstration would be held in the neighbouring
town of Thurso two weeks later, and a petition presented to the Commander of
the Vulcan Base.
A scheme was hatched by the Highland Federation of
CND Groups to put out false information to see what would happen (long before
this, we knew of course that our phone lines were being tapped). Hazel, for example, would phone me from
Cromarty asking whether I knew that an extra 10 buses would be coming from
Manchester, to which I would reply, expressing complete disbelief –
"surely not on top of the dozen we already know about". And so this went on with Liverpool, Newcastle,
Edinburgh and Glasgow adding to the numbers!
So, when the big day arrived, Sandside Bay was empty of protestors, but
packed with hundreds upon hundreds of policemen!
However, one of our members, Eddie from Golspie,
who somehow or other always managed to get things wrong, stuck a few CND
banners on his sidecar, hopped on his old motorbike and drove up the road and
onto Sandside Bay. He was immediately
surrounded by a hoard of police. They
crawled under his motorbike, and almost pulled the old Velocette apart! The fact that Eddie was coloured, spoke with
a Cockney accent and was somewhat confused may have added to the police
anxiety, but in the end it was a very relieved man who arrived safely back in Golspie
that Evening.
When the threat of a nuclear attack on Britain
became a possibility, the Government of the day decided to issue a booklet
titled "Protect And Survive".
It was a gift for CND. It taught the public how to whitewash their windows,
to build a nuclear shelter under the table with such items as suit cases and
old boxes, and how to fill a survival kit which could be carried on the
back. To add insult to injury, it
informed those uninjured survivors how to prepare a meal of roast beef and Yorkshire
pudding!
CND, with such groupings as "Scientists
Against Nuclear Arms", "The Medical Campaign Against Nuclear
Weapons", "Ex-services CND", which even included retired
generals, were able to give the public true information. We explained how a nuclear bomb exploding 50
miles away would blow the glass out of every window, that the flash would set
the curtains on fire, that every petrol station would explode in a fireball and
that anyone caught in the open air, say playing golf, would be immediately
blinded by the flash, their eyeballs would simply melt and roll down their
cheeks.
CND brought out a serious of booklets, and a
paperback of 270 pages all titled "Protest and Survive" (Penguin
Label). These did not attempt to rubbish
"Protect and Survive", the booklet itself did the job itself for us,
but it gave facts and information, articles by scientists etc. I befriended Brigadier Harbottle, best known
for commanding the peace keeping forces in Cyprus (early in his career he lost
an arm in combat). He travelled north
and stayed with us for several days. He
spoke to several Highland groups. He
surprised everyone by telling us that throughout the Cold War, generals from
east and west would meet to discuss the situation. On one occasion he told us that the Russians
brought out a map, not one that you would immediately recognise, but one with
Russia in the middle and the American bases which completely surrounded her –
"believe me" he told us "they were shit scared".
Against all this doom and gloom, it was necessary
to have some fun to keep our spirits up. With the help of a Scottish University
we were able to produce some official looking paper, and make up a list of our
own survival kit. The pack to be carried on the back was first to be filled
with such sensible items as a torch with spare batteries, a box of matches, a
first aid kit and bandages, and then, 2 bottles of Whisky, 6 tins of Heinz
beans, a heavy hammer etc…soon the pack would be weighing several stones. Round the neck and leaning on the chest a
gas mask, over the left shoulder a coil of rope, in the right hand a large
spade, in the left hand a large cooking pot with a teapot inside, and finally a
broom to be carried in the only remaining place available!
Part 6: Friends in High Places?
During the height of the Cold War period when the
threat of a nuclear attack became realistic, governments prepared secret plans
as to how local Authorities, Police, Rescue Services etc. would operate. Packages of sealed instructions were
delivered by hand "to be opened only when a state of emergency was
declared". It appeared that I had
friends in high places, as a copy of instructions in a plain envelope (place of
posting unknown) would reach me the following day. My first reaction was that the contents were
false and were put out hoping that we would publish them and so totally
discredit CND. However, when I found
out that no other sections of CND had received anything similar, I began to
feel that what I had was authentic, and when investigative journalist Duncan
Campbell published a book titled "Beneath The City Streets" which the authorities first tried to ban,
this collaborated some of the information I had received.
This made me realise that I had to be cautious
about what I published. The contents
were terrifying. Local authorities were
told to take over golf courses for mass graves. People so badly injured that they would be
unlikely to recover would be shot. Those
understood to have suffered fatal doses of radiation were termed
"zombies". Special
concentration camps were to be set up on the Salisbury plain to intern
"zombies" who were not to be given any food rations. The fantasy of being able to undertake these
tasks was obvious from the start – after the chaos of a nuclear attack, with
whole towns wiped out and roads throughout the country destroyed, where would
this huge manpower appear from to perform even a fraction of what was proposed.
One of the first tasks as soon as a state of
emergency was declared (i.e. before a nuclear attack) was to pick up subversives
i.e. people who might inspire widespread revolt among the public and would
block roads etc. I assumed that I would
be included on the list, so I had arranged to vanish. Where I would be residing
in comfort would be the last place in Ross & Cromarty that they would look
for me! (to this day my wife doesn't
know where this was to be. I had a fear
she might be tortured). Soon I
discovered, much to my surprise, that the task of rounding up subversives would
be performed by the Royal Observer Corps.
I knew that part of their training was to plot
where nuclear bombs had fallen and report this to a central H.Q. but surely
picking up subversives was far beyond their call of duty, but at this time of
course, the whole country would be under a sort of "Marshall
Law". I got a tip off that I could
expect a visit as part of their training on a specific day – a Sunday – so I
decided that I would sit in the sun by the roadside and see what was going to
happen. In mid afternoon a vehicle
pulled up, the driver and co-driver swapped places by running round the back of
the truck whilst I cheered and clapped, much to their discomfort.
We had assumed that attempts would be made to
infiltrate our ranks, so we kept a sharp look out for this. The first occurrence was when we held one of
our regular meetings of the Highland Federation of CND, this one being in Fort
William. Scottish CND had told us to
expect one of their volunteers as a visitor.
He was exceptionally well dressed, appeared to have plenty of money, but
seemed to have little knowledge of CND – which would not be unreasonable
however if he had only recently joined.
After the meeting, he began asking personal questions which made us
somewhat suspicious.
Next morning he appeared at breakfast in this
magnificent pair of silk pyjamas. One of
our key members, who co-ordinated activity on the West Coast (and who was
reputed to have got married in his wellie boots) took one look at this
apparition and in utter amazement blurted out "Good God". I spoke to Scottish CND the following Monday
who already had suspicions about our visitors, so he was politely told that
they wouldn't need him anymore.
The Scoraig Peninsula in Wester Ross can best be
reached by boat, unless you are prepared to tackle the difficult track over the
mountains. It was occupied mostly by
drop-outs who had come to seek a better way of life. Most had left secure jobs. We had a Civil Engineer, a scientist from
Plessey who had objected to his involvement in the making of arms, and had come
to Scoraig where he was making violins, and some other well educated
people. Almost all were members of CND.
They decided to have a big Festival, CND based, and to invite groups of all
kinds (not just CND) from all over the UK.
It was a huge success. Two small
boats ran continually ferrying people, tents, etc across the water. I was in charge of the Scottish CND
stall. People were sitting around in a
large circle on the grass in the sunshine early in the Saturday afternoon,
speeches and entertainment would come later.
I had a sudden thought, would there be a visitor from Special Branch?
I thought I would just look around the crowd. I spotted this young girl who seemed
unusually dressed for someone attending a rural festival. I kept an eye on her. She got up casually, went one way and then
the other, but gradually getting closer to the stall. Eventually, she came right up. "Hello" she said with a smile. "I'm from "Psychiatrists for
Peace" – a group I had never heard of. She began by asking me what political
party or group I belonged to, and after I told her "none" she began
to talk about left wing ideals which she said she was strongly in favour of, to
see if I agreed with her. So after a
while having this friendly chat I casually asked "Can I ask you a
question?" "Certainly"
she replied. “How long have you been in
Special Branch?" She almost
collapsed in a heap. Grabbing her by the
arm I asked "Are you a good swimmer, its only 5 miles to the mainland, but
there is an alternative, there is a boat leaving in five minutes, be on
it". She ran down the path and onto
the boat. I watched from a distance
until the boat left. Somehow, I felt a
bit sorry for her.
Part 7: We have crossed the Rubicon
The arrival of Cruise Missiles and the setting up
of the camp at Greenham Common, along with the building of Trident brought a
new dimension to the Cold War. Firstly
"Trident". In the earlier
years, the adversaries targeted each other’s cities. Now whether a nuclear bomb exploded on the
east side of Moscow or the right side of London, the cities would be destroyed,
and because of this, a sort of nuclear deterrence did in fact exist. But Trident was a new weapon with extreme
accuracy (said to be capable of hitting its target within 100 metres) so instead
of being targeted on cities it was targeted on the Soviet's nuclear silos.
But with the Soviets reciprocating, tension was
increased with the belief that whoever fired first would win. This was typical
of the mindless thinking of the Cold War era.
Canadian meteorologists, the experts in this field, published a report
which said that even in what turned out to be only "a limited nuclear
exchange", so much dust would be created that the sun's rays would be
obscured, setting in motion a “Nuclear Winter" in which all the seas would
freeze, lasting for up to ten years, and as was said at the time "the
survivors would envy the dead".
The arrival of Cruise Missiles was a shattering
blow for the Soviet Union. A nuclear
attack could come from any point of the compass and the missiles fired from
air, sea or land. A massive new radar
system would be needed over many thousands of miles, the cost of which would be
insurmountable. How could the funds be
provided? In the years following the
revolution the Soviets were able to grow almost all the wheat they needed to
feed their population in southern areas of Siberia, but from 1938 the weather
turned much colder and this came to an end. So, the Soviets had planned to
divert the course of two rivers which flowed aimlessly into the Arctic,
southwards into the arid areas of central Asia.
The monies already provided were then diverted to
the creation of the new radar system, and one of the most ambitious projects in
human history abandoned. Militarily, the
Soviets, for the first time in their history, changed their constitution to
allow nuclear weapons to be moved in to their satellite countries. This meant, for example, that their SS 20
missiles could now hit the Outer Hebrides which had been earmarked by the West
for the disembarking of troops and equipment from the USA as danger
mounted. Whilst all this was going on
anti-nuclear campaigners in the Highlands were becoming aware that some kind of
adaption was being made to some of the low flying military aircraft, and soon
the news broke "Cruise Missiles".
The planes above our heads would be flying below
the Soviet radar in a surprise attack. These actual planes were being trained
to start World War III. We stepped up our campaign against low
flying. I wrote a pamphlet "Low
Flying your questions answered", the 5,000 copies produced were in demand
from all over the Highlands and we soon ran out. Groups further south affected
by low flying produced their own copies, and a strong campaign was mounted in
the Borders centred in Cumbria.
I spoke at the Annual Conference of British CND in
London, and the Low Flying issue was, on a vote, raised to the second highest
campaigning issue behind Trident. It
was decided to hold a national protest in Hyde Park, following a walk through a
central London. The Highland CND
contingent, 50 strong, arrived in North London and decided to walk across
London with our new recruit, a canvass Loch Ness Monster. Operated by 5 people inside it, it looked
almost alive as it waggled along with legs going in different directions. In its mouth it carried a placard
"Nessie wants no more monsters in Scottish lochs".
Much to our surprise the police stopped the
traffic and helped us across the city, and on our way back helped us to carry
Nessie and our banners with such comments as "This is far better than
being at the football match". This
was the biggest rally ever held in the UK with over 750,000 attending. This figure was given to me by the police
with whom I had spent part of the time.
Needless to say, the BBC and the Tory Press played down the extent of
the rally, whilst the TV showed a group of anarchists throwing bottles at the
police which had no connection whatever with CND.
Soviet cameras were there in plenty, and their
representatives approached CND for someone to speak to them officially. I did the job. I did not spare my words – I condemned the
Soviets and America and her allies equally, both threatening to bring the world
to extinction. With the arrival of
Cruise Missiles, I stressed that the ability to check the number of nuclear
weapons on each side had ended, that Strategic Arms Control was now a thing of
the past – “We have crossed the Rubicon”.
Next day my talk was broadcast on Radio Moscow and
accurately translated into five languages including a broadcast in Russian
within the USSR. However, when the
Soviet negotiators on Arms Control met the West again in Geneva a week later
(they had been doing this for months and achieving nothing) they suddenly got
to their feet and with the words "We have crossed the Rubicon" walked
out.
You can imagine how I felt especially as this was
blazed on front pages of newspapers across the world the following day. Fortunately, the Soviets returned to the
negotiating table the following week and meaningful discussions began in
earnest between the Superpowers, which finally led to the historic meeting in
Iceland when both sides agreed to substantial reductions in the number of
nuclear weapons held.
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR
in 1990, he praised CND and the other Peace Movements in the West, which he
said "showed the Russian people that they too could oppose unpopular
governments". The Berlin Wall
came down, and the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet equivalent of NATO, dismantled in
1991. Sadly, I feel, NATO lives on, a
relic from the most dangerous period in World history.