There are few things more humbling than looking back at your life and realizing there were times in your past when you were really and truly ridiculous. You’ll remember some moment of desperation or earnestness or even just embarrassment and just have to shake your head and laugh at your own moments of stupidity. These moments are pretty harmless, for the most part, because we’re just people. But when it’s an entire government—one with newly acquired nuclear technology—the results can be a little more dire. Such is the case of an event detailed in recently declassified U.S. documents that outline a plan the Air Force had put in motion during the Cold War that involved nuking the moon. The whole plan stems from the launch of Sputnik and the determination that if the U.S. couldn’t land on the moon, nobody would be landing on the moon at all, and it is exactly the sort of hardline, no-nonsense policy so missing in politics today. Just kidding—that is crazy. What else should get nuked, just in case the U.S. doesn’t get there first? The bottom of the ocean? The first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views? The future? The point is, when you start feeling embarrassed about some of your past moments of foolishness, take comfort in the fact that none of your plans involved blowing up the moon …
