In This Movie the Chairman of the KGB Aleksey Rudenski was ultimately in Charge of Situation when the President and him
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — World War III
DCANCHOLA — 19 years ago(June 06, 2006 12:16 AM)
In This Movie the Chairman of the KGB Aleksey Rudenski was ultimately in Charge of Situation when the President and him were talking on the hotline near the end of the Movie i think that the General on the Right of the KGB Chairman wanted a peaceful negotiated settlement to the Crisis hence he told him I Suggest we bring the Unit Home but the KGB Chief choose instead the Ultimate decision and that was to push the Nuclear button!
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tgs333 — 19 years ago(June 13, 2006 08:18 AM)
I asked this question once. Why did the General say "I suggest we bring the UNIT home." I think he was offering this advice to trick the Americans, because after the phone convesation, he indicates, "the Americans will be slower than us" and ether him or Rudenski says "They need a gongressional 'something or other' approval".
Classic Rock Hudson nevertheless, "God Forgive me", buries face in hands.
"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep." -
Dennis_Cooper — 19 years ago(August 23, 2006 02:17 PM)
What made no sense was half way through the movie, the Admiral at the White House told the President that he could have a submarine launch a cruise missile with a small tactical nuclear warhead and destroy the pumping station and only a very small portion of the pipeline. The President said not to do it yet, but wouldn't he have that option ready to go at a moment's notice and when he lost contact with the National Guard unit (and the Soviets had the station) he would have the cruise missile launched thereby detroying the station, the Soviets and eliminating the threat to the 30 miles of pipeline (the missile would only destroy a small portion which could be fixed quickly compared to the 30 miles the Soviets would have destroyed)?
Why didn't the President tell the Soviets he would do this as a last resort and why didn't he actually do it when he realized the Soviets had taken the station?
Better to drop one small tactical weapon in a very remote part of Alaska than get into an all-out Nuclear exchange with the Soviets - right? As the Admiral said, he assumed the National Guard unit was expendable given their situation and why would exploding a nuclear weapon on US soil be so traumatic? It was done many times in the 40's and 50's in Nevada and New Mexico. They could even cover it up by saying it was an accident during a missile test etc.
Or were they trying to portray the President as an indecisive idiot who wouldn't take direct action until it was too late?
Major plot flaw. -
tgs333 — 19 years ago(October 02, 2006 05:37 PM)
Indeed very good points. Lets remember the President (Rock Hudson) wasn't "elected"you kind of draw from the movie in the beginning he was only trying to bid time so he could get out of office in the next election and retire from public duty, he simply had no heart for the job. As far as not using nukes, he clearly explains that he could not use atomic weaponsmost certainly not on his own land. In his debates back and forth with the soviets, especially with his face-to-face meeting with the Soviet President, he never mentions "atomic/nuclear weapons or war", merely he says "world war III", but never uses the nuclear/atomic terms. I take from it, he tried very very very hard not to bring nuclear/atomic war to the forefront, though in the end this logic failed.
"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep." -
artisticengineer — 19 years ago(March 02, 2007 09:32 AM)
The decision was made for the President by the KGB Chief. The President had no real option (after the Premiere was killed) but to launch the U.S. missiles.
In real life, he would probably have had the option for a limited nuclear exchange. But, the movie chose to ignore that complicating factor for simplicity.