# The Brink of War…Accurate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 19, 2026, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414 "2026-08-19T02:23:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![19USMC69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ac91a4/32.png) [@19USMC69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19USMC69)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/1 "2026-08-19T02:23:25Z")
As I find the subject matter interesting I very much enjoyed it. Good glimpse into history. I am curious, however, much license, if any, was taken? Is anyone who was present at the Reagan/Gorbachev meetings even alive? Lastly, I don’t recall what ultimately derailed what was agreed upon w/regard to zero nukes? ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/2 "2026-08-19T02:31:30Z")
> [@19USMC69](#): > > Lastly, I don’t recall what ultimately derailed what was agreed upon w/regard to zero nukes? It would have taken all sides (keep in mind that at that time the British, French, and Chinese also had nukes), to disarm, not just the USA and USSR. On top of that, it would have taken all five of those nations having the type of leader who was, for lack of a better term, someone who could be described as a “sincere person of their word” and who actually cared about the future of humanity. Gorbachev was such a person. Reagan was not. Had Jimmy Carter been POTUS at the time, things might have turned out differently. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/3 "2026-08-19T10:14:20Z")
Are we discussing a movie, book, TV show, mime performance, what? ---
**Author:** ![19USMC69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ac91a4/32.png) [@19USMC69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19USMC69)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/4 "2026-08-19T12:56:11Z")
Movie. Just released. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/5 "2026-08-19T13:06:25Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Are we discussing a movie, book, TV show, mime performance, what? > [@19USMC69](#): > > Movie. Just released. [The Brink of War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brink_of_War) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/6 "2026-08-19T13:08:21Z")
I added a tag. ---
**Author:** ![sb1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/7 "2026-08-19T20:37:17Z")
I disagree with the title of that movie. I was in my thirties in 1986 and I can assure you that NOBODY in the US Midwest felt like we were on the verge of a nuclear exchange. Now I VERY well recall the Berlin crisis of 1961 when many people (in those days almost all men) were mobilized out of their quiet little jobs and sent along with their National guard Reserve unit to posts elsewhere, while certain other Army units were being shipped to places like West Germany and Florida. The early sixties felt very scary to a kid in grade school between happenings in Berlin and Cuba etc. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/8 "2026-08-19T21:11:25Z")
I was in West Germany in 1982 and in Canada in 1986, and took part in numerous rallies and demonstrations in both countries that were organized precisely because we were deeply concerned with the possibility of nuclear war. I too was scared as a kid during the Cuban missile crisis but the 1980s had a frightening characteristic all their own. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brink-of-war-accurate/1032414/9 "2026-08-20T01:32:32Z")
> [@sb1953](#): > > I was in my thirties in 1986 and I can assure you that NOBODY in the US Midwest felt like we were on the verge of a nuclear exchange. I was also in my 30s in the Midwest in 1986, and while there wasn’t the stomach-churning feear of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was “concern” about the mutual U.S. and Soviet arms buildup and that a mistake (probably by Reagan) would lead to war. Remember the paranoid movies like _The Day After, Testament,_ and _Threads_?