In the song 99 Balloons the singer and a friend purchase some balloons from a store and let them go at dawn during the summer. The then float away and set off a faulty early warning system, eventually culminating in World War III and a nuclear exchange. Here are the relevant lyrics from the English version of the song (source): It seems likely that the scenario would have taken place along the Inner German Border during the early to mid-1980s, and the balloons could have been of any type, such as mylar (its reflectivity led to being selected for the Echo radar reflector satellites of the 1960s). The English version says they are red balloons, but that was done for aesthetic reasons in place of the German word luftballon (which simply means balloon). Global tensions were high in in 1983 when the song was recorded due to the Soviet shootdown of KAL 007 and the Able Archer 83 nuclear war scare (itself only weeks ahead of NATO bringing the Pershing II tactical nuclear missiles online in Europe). Is it possible that something as simple as balloons could be mistaken for missiles?