The Doomsday Clock is controlled by the organisation the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . In September 1953 the clock reached two minutes to midnight, the closest it ever got to midnight in the 20th century, when the United States and Soviet Union carried out 16 nuclear tests in one year and tested H-bombs within nine months of one another. The atomic clock, set at 12 minutes to midnight in 1972, regressed thereafter among US–Soviet tensions, reaching three minutes to midnight in 1984 – the year this track was released, 39 years to the day after the first use of the atomic bomb, on 6th August 1945, at Hiroshima.
During the Cold War the doomsday clock could have struck midnight on multiple occasions. Through clever diplomacy and brave decisions it thankfully didn't. But, when was it closest to striking?
Was it during the Korean War (1950-53)?
Was it during the growing nuclear bomb testing in the late 1950s and early 1960s?
Was it during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962?
Was it after the assasination of JFK in 1963?
Was it during the Vietnam War (1955-75)?
Was it during the Space Race?
Was it in 1984 with an accelerating nuclear arms race and the almost complete breakdown of communication between the superpowers?