In the past couple of years we’ve been getting a lot of World War Three apocalyptic doom hurled at us. Russia, North Korea, and Trump have all threatened to use nukes while the Chinese are content with bragging about their ability to atomize anyone from the front page of their newspapers. The poor people of Hawaii were alerted to prepare for an incoming nuclear strike just last January. Thanks to modern technology and clickbait news, we can all share in the mortal fear of nuclear annihilation.
Welcome to the club.
It was December 31st, 1978. I was nine years old. My father was on General Haig’s staff when he was NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander. We were in Merano Italy because General Haig wanted to go skiing after Christmas and he always needed his staff nearby.
Haig was one of those generals who works their people to death. It was a sore spot for the wives as they saw their husbands less than when they were in front line battalions on the West German border. The families drove down from NATO headquarters in Belgium to meet Haig after Christmas for a couple days of skiing and a New Year celebration.
We skied the mountain during the day and retired to the hotel at night. I spent time playing with an erector set and re-reading Avenger’s #178 even though I really wasn’t into it as I never considered Beast a real Avenger. I’d already bored myself reading Archie on the drive down. The wives were upset as General Haig ate up what little family time they were expecting with constant meetings.
Here’s what the mind of a nine year old army brat was aware of in 1978: the U.S. lost the Vietnam war and evacuated the embassy when I learned to ride a bike, we waited in long lines for gasoline on specific days of the week with special ration coupons because OPEC was putting the squeeze on ‘the West’, a Soviet-backed coup happened in Afghanistan, the Shah of Iran’s government was collapsing, the new Pope was Polish, Warsaw Pact forces outnumbered NATO forces in tanks and artillery, and that in case of war military dependents should make a beeline for France to escape murder by Spetnaz or obliteration via tactical nukes.
What I wasn’t aware of was that the Soviet Union, China and France had all detonated atmospheric nuclear weapons that December. The U.S. had the common courtesy to carry out both its nuclear tests that month underground in Nevada. I didn’t know Pope John Paul II made the Soviets anxious about Poland. I didn’t know the Polish economy was collapsing, making the Russians even more antsy. I didn’t know the Soviets were reinforcing units in East Germany and Poland, then deploying them to the field.
It was New Years’ Eve, the staff families were all in the hotel’s cellar restaurant. The men kept getting up and leaving the table, pissing off their wives Words like, “control freak,” were used, prescient words apparently as Haig’s career ended after he claimed he was in “control” of the government when Reagan was shot. Dinner abruptly ended before midnight as General Haig ordered the staff to pack and depart to NATO headquarters immediately.
Families argued in the rooms on either side of us as I shoveled erector set pieces into my backpack. We would be driving through the Alps during heavy snowfall on a night with good odds of encountering drunks behind the wheel. Why, everyone wanted to know, did we all need to make such a dangerous trip?
The short answer was that General Haig thought the Warsaw Pact was about to invade West Germany and start World War Three – Happy New Year! I lay in the backseat, as the Fiat wound around mountain curves. The highway lights kept the car’s cabin rotating through alternate bands of dark and bright. I fell asleep in an Austrian tunnel wondering if the world would be there when I woke up.
Daylight revealed Germany and snow. I guess the Russians didn’t think catching General Haig skiing on New Years’ Day was enough of a strategic multiplier to risk launching World War Three and ending most human life. Fourth grade got back underway the next week.
Nothing changed on New Year’s Day, only my awareness, which felt like a curse as there is nothing a nine year old can do.
Expect more threats of nuclear war and brinksmanship as Trump gets increasingly backed into a legal corner. It will dramatically increase the odds of miscalculation and accidental war which we almost got to experience on January 1st, 1979. The United States is on an unnecessary and dangerous trajectory.
We’re not children and we can do something about it. We can put a stop to a blundering foreign policy that’s equal parts blood red pride and white hot fear. All it takes is to vote Democratic for Congress on Tuesday, November 6th.
They’re not perfect, nobody is, but at least they won’t get us all killed.
Wes Clark Jr. 