this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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Please note this does not mean the USSR wasn’t that way. Just want to clarify I’m not a tankie, lol.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 hours ago

Norweigians be laughing...

But who really has the last laugh are the aliens watching this Human Zoo Exhibit right now

[–] Charlxmagne@lemmy.world 34 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)
[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 19 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

The largest population of Marshallese people in the continental United States is in Springdale, Arkansas, just a short drive from where I live.

Why is there a large Marshallese population in Arkansas?

Well, you see, between 1946 - 1958, the US government detonated sixty-seven (yes, 67) nuclear weapons on the Marshall Islands, rendering dozens of the islands uninhabitable.

I suppose you could call it a "big whoops" except for the part a where they were fully aware of the dangers of radioactive fallout and just did it anyway.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

tf didn't they drop nukes in arkansas instead? i'd rather live in the Marshall Islands

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Also one of the cores was ever found and is still lost somewhere.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It will probably be found in a stadium's parking lot in Seattle (this is a reference to The Sum of All Fears).

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

That was a good and bad movie at the same time.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 2 points 6 hours ago

The book is much better.

[–] forrgott@lemmy.zip 60 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (4 children)

Half my immediate family has cancer from undisclosed testing causing nuclear fallout over swaths of the southwest US..

US is run by assholes.

[–] PhoenixDog@piefed.ca 20 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

🌏 👨‍🚀 🔫 👨‍🚀

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 25 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

Isn't the US Air Force still missing like 5 bikes that they lost over the decades?

I could go over mk ultra and other fun little government projects but I guess people already got the point

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 3 points 8 hours ago

The fun thing about american history is that americans don't know it.

[–] Shindo66@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago

I was wondering where those neighborhood kids got those air force bikes...

[–] drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago

At least it was bikes and not nukes.

But speaking of nukes I don't get why they didn't continue the lie. If I was an asshole I sure as fuck would not let that go public.

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[–] slemptastrophe@piefed.social 122 points 1 day ago (5 children)

You know how you hear stories sometimes about shadowy government agencies converging on an area for no apparent reason, and then leaving just as fast as they came? People usually assume it's aliens, but I wonder how many of those incidents have been stupid shit like this.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 55 points 22 hours ago

The army/airforce actively spread rumors of aliens to hide their activities.

[–] redsand@infosec.pub 18 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (4 children)

Military term for this is "broken arrow"

It happens more than you would think mostly by the US but also Russia. Usually they find the things pretty fast but a few are just missing and at least one I remember was underwater somewhere it couldn't safely be recovered so the area is patrolled.

[–] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Are you referring to bombs the Air Force accidentally dropped or the Navy losing nuke subs? Cause we’ve done both and no one has explained what happened to the USS Scorpion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_submarines

[–] redsand@infosec.pub 3 points 13 hours ago

Air force, I think they lost one in the atlantic or gulf in the water but they found one or two swamp ones. My headcannon for the Nemo shark submarine was a mined nuclear sub

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[–] Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 25 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Probably all of those, because it's really unlikely that aliens have come to earth and even less likely that an advanced civilization capable of interstellar travel, would ever get busted.

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[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

If Chernobyl had almost exploded and melted down, I wouldn't blame the USSR for trying to hide it.

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yes. And when it did explode, they should have prioritized saving lives rather than preserving national reputation.

Disasters happen. How they are handled is what matters, and on that front, there was a difference between the two sides of the Cold War.

[–] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

There was a difference but not in the direction you’re thinking. After the US tested a nuclear bomb in the marshal islands that led to an unexpected large fallout not only did they cover it up, they launched a secretive study to see how the fallout would affect the local inhabitants of affected islands. It’s genuinely hard to top that level of fucked up.

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

Before they knew what the effects would be? Ok.

Whereas your angelic Soviets threw human cattle onto the Chernobyl pyre knowing good and well by then how radiation affected flesh.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 19 points 19 hours ago

Turns out the USA has a long list of nuclear near miss and minor disasters, we just don't like to talk about them. Well There's Your Problem podcast just did a lengthy episode chronicling the more notable publicly-disclosed ones, including the ones in North Carolina. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqJR6kgwCio

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 78 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Source? EdIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

Both of the weapons began their firing sequences upon separation from the aircraft, despite safeguards meant to prevent that from occurring.

[–] coalie@piefed.zip 56 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This also happened in South Carolina a few years earlier. Unsure when it was revealed to the public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Mars_Bluff_B-47_nuclear_weapon_loss_incident

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 35 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

God damn the US has so many nukes it can lose them like coins in a sofa.

[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 32 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Continuing...

The other bomb did not get as far into its firing sequence, but became deeply embedded in a muddy field, and one of its major weapons components (the thermonuclear "secondary" stage) was regarded as irrecoverably lost after an extensive, failed effort to recover it.

Me: "IT'S STILL THERE?!?!"

Continuing...

In 1962, the landowner was paid $1,000 to grant the United States of America a perpetual 200-foot (61 m) radius circular easement over the remains of the buried second bomb.[56][57] The site of the easement, at 35°29′37″N 77°51′30″W, is visible as a disturbed area, and lies approximately 250 feet (76 m) north of an obvious circle of trees (and disused cemetery) in the middle of a plowed field visible on Google Earth.

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 13 points 19 hours ago

Time for spicy pilgrimage!

Satellite image of the easement

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[–] voiceofchris@lemmy.world 30 points 22 hours ago

For us not to qualify as a backwards ass country we'd also have to pretend that three mile island wasn't one lucky accident away from doing just what Chernobyl did.

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Accidentally dropping a nuke is wild.

[–] black0ut@pawb.social 19 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It wasn't even the only time. They also accidentally dropped 4 more nukes in Spain, 3 of them over land. And the bombs actually detonated (but failed to trigger a nuclear explosion), spreading radioactive material around.

1966 Palomares Accident

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[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 16 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

And we've done it several times. On domestic soil.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 8 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

they're called Broken Arrow incedents

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[–] prettybunnys@piefed.social 50 points 1 day ago (18 children)

It would really only be comparable if they nuked north Carolina then tried to cover it up.

It’s not shocking that the military keeps classified that sort of thing, they’d have been hard pressed to keep an actual nuclear detonation classified/hidden 🤷‍♂️

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 52 points 1 day ago (2 children)

A near miss and a disaster are worlds apart in terms of consequence, but very close in terms of what went wrong.

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[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Wholesome opossum lady isn't a tankie?? Thank God.

[–] ickplant@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago

Haha, my goal in life is to be called either an opossum lady or a bat lady. Smashing success!

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 22 points 22 hours ago (6 children)

That explains so much about North Carolina.

~ngl, sometimes I kinda wish they had exploded a little bit.~

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[–] Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 16 points 22 hours ago

Yeah... the US track record is completely blank, nothing to see here. It's a long episode but also pants shittingly terrifying...

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