Eight US states most in danger if WW3 was to break out
Experts have made it clear 'nowhere is safe' should it happen
Should you ever wish to survive a nuclear war, it'll all be a matter of location, location, location.
If the conflicts of the globe trigger another world war, then your best bet for survival is being in a country that's neutral and out of the way, though even that wouldn't be of too much help if a hypothetical WW3 went nuclear.
At that point you'd want to either be in a bunker specifically designed to survive nuclear warfare, or you'd want to be far enough away that you avoided the nukes and were still somewhere capable of growing food afterwards.
One would hope that the US and Israel missile strikes on Iran and the subsequent Iranian retaliation do not trigger a global conflict, much less a nuclear one, but history tells us that stopping a war is a far harder task than starting one.
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Iran does not have nuclear weapons, and the US is not at war with a nuclear-armed nation, though Russian mouthpiece Dmitry Medvedev claimed WW3 would 'undoubtedly begin' if the Trump administration kept up what he described as its 'insane course of criminal regime change'.
So while we'd hope WW3 isn't on the cards, the world has become more chaotic and conflicted, and somebody doing something stupid that has consequences far beyond their intention cannot be discounted.
After all, when Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand, he may not have thought he was firing that shot credited with starting the First World War, nor could he have anticipated the scale of death his gunshots would trigger.
A couple of years ago, Newsweek sought expert advice on what a nuclear war might look like for the US, and there are some states in more danger than others.
The most dangerous US states to be in if WWIII breaks out
The expert advice suggested that the US states most in danger of being nuclear targets were Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota because they were closer to the locations of US missile silos.
In a nuclear exchange, the missile silos of other nations would be a prime target, as each one destroyed would be another warhead that couldn't be fired back in retaliation.
However, in a grim warning, the experts said 'nowhere is truly safe' as there would be more than enough nuclear weapons to target many other locations, including infrastructure and population centres.
Under a simulation where the US missile silos were targeted, it'd be the coastal states that were least exposed to radiation, but further testing found that the wind would carry radiation across the North American continent.
John Erath, Senior Policy Director for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told Newsweek: "While those who live near military facilities, ICBM silos in the Midwest or submarine bases along the coasts might bear the most immediate and severe consequences of a nuclear attack, there's no question: ANY nuclear war or weapons detonation would be bad for everyone.
"Nowhere is truly 'safe' from fallout and other consequences like contamination of food and water supplies and prolonged radiation exposure."
Christian G. Appy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst told them even a 'small' nuclear war would result in a nuclear winter that 'would kill all or nearly all of those who survived the blast, firestorms, and radiation of the war'.
Once again the only winning move in a nuclear war is not to play, even those who survived the initial blasts would likely die of radiation or starvation in the aftermath.
The history of Iran's conflict with the US: a timeline
As the United States and Israel launch military operations against Iran, which are focused on the regime's nuclear facilities, military infrastructure and leadership, here is a look into the history of the Middle Eastern nation's conflict with the US.
1953: The US backs the ousting of PM Mohammad Mosaddegh
In a covert operation called Operation Ajax, the British and American intelligence services joined forces to overthrow Iran’s nationalist prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, in August 1953, with the aim of retaining access to cheap oil and preventing communist expansion.
This would go on to fuel the decades-long anti-American movement in Iran.
1957-1968: Nuclear energy agreements
In 1957, Iran was given US backing to develop civilian nuclear power as part of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 'Atoms for Peace' program.
Just over a decade later, in 1968, the US and Iran were among the initial signatories of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 1970.
1970-80s: Civil unrest grows in Iran
While relations between the US and Iran appeared to be stable in the 1970s, civil unrest in the Middle Eastern nation was beginning to mount, resulting in the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Around this time, the exiled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was permitted entry into the US for cancer treatment, triggering outrage among a group of Iranian university students who believed he had escaped justice.
They stormed the American embassy in Tehran in November in retaliation, taking 52 Americans hostage for more than a year and demanding the Shah be returned to Iran to face trial.
1980: Diplomatic ties with Iran are cut by the US
Following an unsuccessful rescue mission to retrieve the American embassy hostages in April 1980, which left eight US servicemen dead, US President Jimmy Carter cut diplomatic ties with the nation. Formal relations between the two have never been restored.
That same year, neighbouring country Iraq invaded Iran, sparking a war that would go on for eight years and kill hundreds of thousands of people on both sides.
The US backed Iraq during this conflict, providing money, training and technology.
It took 444 days to release the US embassy hostages, who were returned home in January 1981, minutes after Carter’s term ended and President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
Late 1980s: Tensions continue between the US and Iran
In 1984, the US added Iran to its list of state sponsors of terrorism and imposed sanctions on the country.
However, two years later, in 1986, the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran to secure the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by the militant group Hezbollah.
And then, in 1988, US naval cruiser the USS Vincennes mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger jet over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board.
1990s: President Bill Clinton’s administration tightens sanctions
These 1995 sanctions included an oil embargo and a ban on US trade. Clinton then signed into law the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act in 1996, which penalised non-American companies that invested over $20 million annually in Iran’s oil and gas sector.
2000s: President George Bush's comments on Iran spark fury
During his State of the Union speech in 2002, President Bush described Iran, as well as North Korea and Iraq, as being part of an 'axis of evil'.
This sparked nationwide outrage in Iran due to its assistance of the US in its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.
2010s: President Barack Obama holds top-level contact with Iran for the first time in 30 years
In September 2013, Obama spoke by phone to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to 'offer a new chapter of engagement on the basis of mutual interests and mutual respect'.
Two months later, Iran, Germany, and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - signed an initial nuclear deal, known as the Joint Plan of Action, designed to manage crises and to ensure that Iran's nuclear programme would be exclusively peaceful.
2018: President Donald Trump restores sanctions on Iran
In 2015, the 2013 nuclear pact was expanded to the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Iran pledged to limit its uranium stockpile.
However, during Trump's first term of presidency in 2018, he fulfilled a campaign pledge by withdrawing the US from the JCPOA, which he called the 'worst deal ever'.
He restored the sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the nuclear pact, and pursued a 'maximum pressure' strategy designed to drive the country’s oil exports to zero.
Then, in 2019, the US designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s most powerful military institution, a terrorist organisation.
2020s: President Joe Biden's administration arranges prisoner exchanges and sanctions waivers
When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration began indirect talks with Iran, but with little success.
But in 2023, a prisoner exchange deal was agreed to release five detainees. This also included a sanctions waiver for banks to transfer $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar for humanitarian purposes - something Republican lawmakers were highly critical of.
2025: President Donald Trump's second term brings back his 'maximum pressure' campaign
Back in office for his second term, Trump reinstated his 'maximum pressure' campaign ordering tougher enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran.
In early 2025, the US joined Israel's offensive and struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, resulting in a retaliation attack from Iran, which bombed the Al Udeid Air Base, a US military facility in Qatar.
2026: US military action is launched in Iran and Ali Hosseini Khamenei is assassinated
In late 2025, Iran was engulfed in anti-government demonstrations following the collapse of its currency. Protests demanded the end of Ali Hosseini Khamenei's rule, which resulted in authorities issuing crackdowns and restricting internet and telecommunications access.
The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said in a February report that more than 6,000 civilians had been killed, and more than 50,000 people arrested.
Khamenei died on February 28, aged 86, in a large-scale air attack on Iran by the US and Israel.
Topics: US News, World News
Joe Harker