6 Times We Have Avoided All Out Nuclear War

The two atomic bombings from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 marked the end of World War II, but also the beginnings of the age of nuclear weapons.

During the Cold War, there was a policy of mutually assured destruction between the US and the Soviet Union, appropriately known as “MAD”, which meant that if any nation used nuclear weapons on another, an equal response would come as soon as possible.

So, over the course of the Cold War, and long after it, the citizens of the world were basically forced to hold their breath. Here are nine times the world was close to all-out nuclear war: