Crazy Cold War Projects, Part 1 Quiz

Answer: The moon

Afraid that the Soviet Union was going to land on the moon before the United States, since the Soviets had already sent the first satellite (and soon after the first man) into space, the United States decided they were going to get there first, one way or another. Project A119 was sneakily nicknamed "A Study of Lunar Research Flights," which would be somewhat like naming the Trinity bomb project "Exploring the Effects of Loud Bangs in New Mexico."

Answer: A mushroom cloud would not form in space

Assuming that the ICBM the Air Force shot at the moon even reached the lunar surface, the resulting explosion would not have created a mushroom cloud. The distinctive mushroom is only created with the presence of air. The original plan had the bomb being set off on the terminator line of the moon - where night and day meet. That way, the sun would light up the explosion in a spectacular display of American power.

Instead, the US government decided that they should help NASA with simply sending men to the moon. Around ten years later, Neil Armstrong would do just that on an unadulterated and non-radioactive lunar surface. The project was summed up the best by Dr. David Lowry when the story originally broke in 2000: "It is obscene. To think that the first contact human beings would have had with another world would have been to explode a nuclear bomb. Had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking 'one giant step for mankind.'"

Answer: Infected mosquitoes would be released upwind of the target area

The unclassified material for Operation Big Buzz goes into great detail comparing the costs for an aerosol attack against a covert mosquito attack. Big Buzz was declassified in 1981 along with Operation Big Itch, Operation May Day, and Operation Drop Kick; each of these covered a different aspect of using biological warfare against any enemy using either mosquitoes or fleas.

The briefing even went so far as to determine the cost of the project per death: for example, 62,000 deaths would mean the entire project would cost $2.86 per death, while a massive toll of 625,000 would cost $0.29 per death (in 1976).

Answer: The state of Georgia

The essence of Operation Big Buzz was the release of uninfected mosquitoes over Georgia. According to the unclassified report, operatives for Big Buzz had actually bred over a million mosquitoes total, but only a third of those (all were female) were released.

They were released both via aircraft and from the ground, determining which was the better delivery method. Obviously, the mosquitoes dropped from the aircraft were affected by the prevailing winds much more than those released from the ground. Mosquitoes from the test were found up to 610 meters away from the original release point, and according to the briefing "the female mosquitoes were active in seeking blood meals from humans to guinea pigs."

Answer: Greenland

Camp Century was completed under the ice of Greenland in just over a year, and included the world's first portable nuclear power plant. The full plans included a library, post exchange, a barber's shop, a chapel, a recreation hall, hobby shops, etc. Water was supplied by melting ice underneath the camp and pumping it up. Eventually the deep-ice drilling turned out to be the biggest accomplishment of Camp Century, allowing study of "continuous ice cores representing over 100,000 years of climatic history." The camp was abandoned in 1966 due to movement of the Greenland Ice Cap, which was moving faster than anticipated during initial construction.

In 1969, a team was sent back to assess the damage and in that short period of time massive damage had already been done.

Answer: They were to house hundreds of mobile nuclear missile launch sites

While nuclear weapons were reportedly kept at Thule Air Base, operated by the United States inside Greeland until 1965 (even though Denmark - which has governmental control over Greenland - declared itself a nuclear-free zone in 1957), it is not known whether or not nuclear arms were kept at Camp Century in anticipation of enacting Project Iceworm. If enacted, Project Iceworm would allow for up to 600 mobile nuclear missiles to stay underneath the ice of Greenland.

Their positions would change randomly so that the Soviet Union could never track all of them.

However, even if the plan was going to be enacted, Camp Century was forced to close down much too soon and firing nuclear missiles from a "nuclear-free zone" would cause innumerable political problems.

Answer: They were 10-kiloton nuclear mines

Britain successfully tested its first nuclear weapon in 1952, and quickly began thinking of ways it could deploy the new weapon against a possible Soviet invasion into the West. Blue Peacock was developed by the British Army, which decided that the nuclear mines could be detonated by wire from miles away or by an 8-day timer.

In 1957, the Army actually ordered the delivery of ten mines to Germany, but in February 1958 the Ministry of Defense cancelled the operation. It was determined that putting a nuclear weapon in an allied country on a timer during peacetime perhaps wasn't the best strategy available.

Answer: Their body heat would keep the bomb at acceptable temperatures

Winter can get quite cold in Germany, so Britain needed some way of keeping the nuclear mines warm for the 8 days the timer was set for. The mines were inside a steel casing and used nuclear material, so why they did not choose some sort of nuclear-powered heating device may never be known.

Instead, they decided on putting a chicken inside the bomb with enough food and water to keep it alive while the bomb was still active. The project was declassified on April 1, 2004, and it was immediately thought to be an April Fool's Day joke.

The head of education and interpretation at the National Archives, Tom O'Leary, told the BBC, "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."

Answer: Diverting the flow of multiple rivers that normally flow into the Arctic Ocean through new canals

The Northern River Reversal Plan was originally proposed around the same time that the Suez and Panama Canals were being planned. Russia determined that there were rivers that flowed into the Arctic Ocean - such as the Pechora, Dvina, and Kama Rivers - that did so needlessly, and they could be turned around in order to flow back into the Volga.

The Volga River provides a major inflow of water into the Caspian Sea, and the added volume would fill the sea back up.

Answer: Small nuclear bombs placed hundreds of meters apart

In the true Cold War spirit, the Soviet Union decided the best way to build a canal to replenish the sea that was their biggest source of fish was to use nuclear weapons. Three 15-kiloton bombs were actually set off to see how feasible the project was, and even though "Time" reported that there was "so little radiation and such stable walls that technicians were able to walk along the rim of the 2,600-ft.-long crater only two days later," the project was soon scrapped.

The health of the technicians afterwards was not reported. According to officials, around 250 more bombs would have been necessary to complete the entire Pechora-Kama Canal.

In 1986, the project was abandoned entirely, though discussion still remains for whether or not the rivers should be reversed by alternate means.