The limits of correctness

Abstract

On October 5, 1960, the American Ballistic Missile Early-Warning System station at Thule, Greenland, indicated a large contingent of Soviet missiles headed towards the United States .l For- tunately, common sense prevailed at the informal threat-assessment conference that was immediately convened larly high at the time . The system had only recent- ly been installed . Kruschev was in New York, and all in ;all a massive Soviet attack seemed very unlikely . As a result no devastating counter-attack was launched. What was the problem? The moon had risen, and was reflecting radar signals back to earth . Needless to say, this lunar reflection hadn't been predicted by the system's designers .