At the height of the cold war the world situation presented itself as follows: Every minute of every day at thousand of places in the USA, in Siberia, in the south of France and in central China, even under the Arctic brash ice rockets with nuclear warheads were awaiting the go ahead for launch. In Western Europe Airplanes with nuclear bombs are ready for deployment. In the seas nuclear armed submarines are ready to go into action any time. The weapons can reach targets many thousand kilometers away.