Potential Outcomes of a US First Strike in a Nuclear War

Nuclear War: Scenario
Annie Jacobsen (Tova)

In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev declared in a joint statement that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” A year later, the number of nuclear weapons in the world began to decline from its peak of nearly 70,000. By 1989, the Cold War was over, and the world rejoiced because the chances of being instantly killed at 100 years old were now lower.