The US almost got itself into a nuclear war with the Soviet Union this week, but discovered after three minutes that it was all a mistake.
The Pentagon said yesterday that because of a computer error at the North American Defence Command, it was wrongly thought that the US was under missile attack from the Soviet Union. A communications aircraft was launched from Hawaii, engines on strategic bombers at US bases were started up, and missiles of the Strategic Air Command were put on a higher alert.
However, as was the case last November when a similar alert was sounded, it was all over quickly. ╥There was no change in the overall defence posture and after an evaluation, all systems returned to normal,╙ Pentagon officials said.
As far as the Pentagon can assess, the Russians, who keep close watch on US Strategic Command, had no indication that American bombers were at the ready or that the plane launched from Hawaii, which looks similar to a Boeing 707, was preparing for defensive moves. As far as can be detected, there was no Soviet response.
In the November 9 incident, test data was accidentally fed into the computer in advance of a scheduled test of the readiness of the strategic alert forces. On that occasion the mistake so unnerved President Brezhnev that he sent a stiff letter to President Carter warning him of the dangers of nuclear war by
