During October 1978, the US spent a month practicing World War III.
The military portion of the plan was given the jaunty codename “Nifty Nugget,” and when paired with a civilian plan called “Readiness Exercise 78,” represented the first ever computerized, nuclear age exercise to test the nation’s ability to mobilize for war in Europe, fight in the field, move equipment and troops, and absorb the damage and casualties that would occur when the conflict went nuclear.
It was a fiasco, and showed that if war broke out, we’d be utterly screwed.
Mike Rothschild 