Good example where missed intelligence could have destroyed the world. We always presume we know more than we actually do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19930260
Cid_Yama wrote:Good example where missed intelligence could have destroyed the world. We always presume we know more than we actually do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19930260
Cid_Yama wrote:Good example where missed intelligence could have destroyed the world. We always presume we know more than we actually do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19930260
dissident wrote:Cid_Yama wrote:Good example where missed intelligence could have destroyed the world. We always presume we know more than we actually do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19930260
"Duplicity" like stationing nuclear missiles in Turkey by the USA.
ennui2 wrote:You didn't really read the article, did you?
"The Cuban leader, cut out of the main negotiations between the superpowers over the fate of the long range Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba, began to cease cooperation with Moscow."
The main conflict was between Russia and Cuba.
Cid_Yama wrote:Why the personal attacks? Our haters seem to be on a rampage. Maybe we could call it the Scrooge effect.
The SAC study includes chilling details. According to its authors, their target priorities and nuclear bombing tactics would expose nearby civilians and “friendly forces and people” to high levels of deadly radioactive fallout. Moreover, the authors developed a plan for the “systematic destruction” of Soviet bloc urban-industrial targets that specifically and explicitly targeted “population” in all cities, including Beijing, Moscow, Leningrad, East Berlin, and Warsaw. Purposefully targeting civilian populations as such directly conflicted with the international norms of the day, which prohibited attacks on people per se (as opposed to military installations with civilians nearby).
... Using data from the SAC study, this Google map shows the top 20 Soviet bloc airfields of more than 1100 that SAC listed as targets for its Air Power attack [See section 6 for complete list]. The map also shows the locations of five of the major Soviet bloc cities that SAC included in its list of over 1200 potential urban targets: East Berlin, Warsaw, Leningrad, Moscow, and Beijing [Peiping] and their suburbs. Linked to each city is a spread sheet that lists the various installations SAC targeted for destruction and total numbers of installations targeted for the five urban areas.
According to the study, SAC would have targeted Air Power targets with bombs ranging from 1.7 to 9 megatons. Exploding them at ground level, as planned, would have produced significant fallout hazards to nearby civilians. SAC also wanted a 60 megaton weapon which it believed necessary for deterrence, but also because it would produce “significant results” in the event of a Soviet surprise attack.
The “greatly compressed time factor”—the danger of a speedy Soviet attack and counterattack-- encouraged targeters to require the surface bursting of high-yield nuclear weapons. According to SAC, bursting the weapon in the air would “result in decrease of blast effect.” Detonating the weapon on or close to the ground would maximize blast effects, destroy the target, and disperse irradiated particles which would be picked up by winds and descend far and near.[1]
Return to Geopolitics & Global Economics
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests