Great Snap Judgements in Modern History
Good evening, viewers. This week on Great Snap Judgements in Modern History, we'll look at two distinct moments that changed the history of the American landscape - forever.
Dewey Beats Truman!
Actually, not quite Mr. Newspaper Reporter Man! President Harry Truman defeats the favored Republican Thomas Dewey and this remarkable photograph shows the pitfalls of rushing to judgement. Low voter turnout is pinpointed as the reason for the confusion.
U.S nukes Cuba, Russia responds with nuclear weapons, we're all dead as ****
On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy receives reconnaissance photos showing Russia building and housing nuclear missile installations in Cuba that could potentially hit the United States. In response, Kennedy orders an immediate strike against Cuba to dismantle such missiles from potentially harming the U.S. The bombings kill thousands of Russian scientists, Cuban citizens and Fidel Castro himself.
In response, Russia immediately declares war with the United States and fires its operational missiles that were not damaged from the U.S. strike and litters the eastern seaboard and all major U.S. cities with nuclear weapons. Millions upon millions of citizens die from the iniitial blasts with scores later dying from radiation, starvation, lack of oxygen in the post-nuclear air, etc. Other countries, fearing for their livelihood, arm themselves and immediately begin protecting their own interests by attacking their respective enemies and establishing themselves in the ultimate 'survival of the fittest'.
The planet's ecosystem is thrown into chaos as nuclear fallout from other countries using their nuclear weapons (ex. United Kingdom) to establish their existence. The sun is blocked out as a nuclear winter envelops the world effectively killing all plant life and establishing biting cold due to the presence of so many nuclear explosions.
What happened after that is largely unknown, but as I speak to you, my information superhighway viewers, from my cave in southern Utah littered amongst old soup cans, a barren landscape devoid of life and a dedicated T1 line from a computer that was somehow invented forty years before it's time, I can tell you that I highly doubt that the Soviets would ever have beat us in basketball and us beating them in hockey. Would never have happened in a thousand lifetimes.
