A warning from military generals that we and the Russians are still on a hair-trigger nuclear alert was twice misinterpreted as a nuclear attack, and Clinton and Yeltsin were alerted. When President Clinton criticized the Russians for their bombardment of Chechnya, Yeltsin was visiting China. If you saw Yeltsin waving his fist and declaring, "Just remember, we have nuclear weapons too!" you might have been surprised by the suggestion that tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union over nuclear threats were subsiding.

In this insightful video, Admiral Stanfield Turner and a Russian general give illustrations of how de-alerting can safely take place so that a radar blip is not mistaken for an incoming missile once again.