Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Details Emerge of Cold War Nuclear Threat by Cuba
nytimes.com ^ | Sept. 21, 2009 | WILLIAM J. BROAD

Posted on 09/23/2009 8:05:43 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

In the early 1980s, according to newly released documents, Fidel Castro was suggesting a Soviet nuclear strike against the United States, until Moscow dissuaded him by patiently explaining how the radioactive cloud resulting from such a strike would also devastate Cuba.

The cold war was then in one of its chilliest phases. President Ronald Reagan had begun a trillion-dollar arms buildup, called the Soviet Union “an evil empire” and ordered scores of atomic detonations under the Nevada desert as a means of developing new arms. Some Reagan aides talked of fighting and winning a nuclear war.

Dozens of books warned that Reagan’s policies threatened to end most life on earth. In June 1982, a million protesters gathered in Central Park.

Barack Obama, then an undergraduate at Columbia University, worried about the nuclear threat and later wrote as a student and a journalist about ways to avoid global annihilation.

The future president didn’t know half the danger.

The National Security Archive, a private research group at George Washington University, recently made public documents that reveal the nuclear threat in new detail. The two-volume study, “Soviet Intentions 1965-1985,” was prepared in 1995 by a Pentagon contractor and based on extensive interviewing of former top Soviet military officials.

It took the security archive two years to get the Pentagon to release the study. Censors excised a few sections on nuclear tests and weapon effects, and the archive recently posted the redacted study on its Web site.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coldwar; cubanmissilecrisis

1 posted on 09/23/2009 8:05:43 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

In the book “One Hell Of a Gamble”, Castro was planning to detonate a nuclear weapon as American soldiers landed on the beaches.


2 posted on 09/23/2009 8:09:45 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("We will either find a way, or make one."Hannibal/Carthaginian Military Commander)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY


"I gots ta save da world from blowin' up."
3 posted on 09/23/2009 8:12:59 PM PDT by Thrownatbirth (.....Iraq Invasion fan since '91.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY
Russian nuclear bombers in Cuba?
July 23, 2008

The media has been abuzz today at the prospect of Russian nuclear bombers being stationed in Cuba if the US goes ahead with plans for missile defense bases in Eastern Europe.

The story has riled the US enough that a US general has been wheeled out to tell the world’s press that any Russian attempt to build another nuclear base in Cuba would cross US “red line”.

The story broke earlier this week, when Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted an un-named source from within the Russian military. He told the Russian daily:

“While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba.”

The quote hasn’t been independently confirmed, but the Russian Defense Ministry added fuel to the fire when they refused to comment on the story.

The prospect of Russian nuclear forces being stationed in Cuba - which is, after all, only 90 miles from the US coast - would bring back some rather unpleasant memories for the US of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, where the Soviet Union under Nikita Kruschev launched an audacious and foolhardy bid to station nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island.

http://www.siberianlight.net/2008/07/23/russian-nuclear-bombers-cuba/
_____________________________________________________

Russia to help Cuba modernize weaponry, train military

September 18, 2009

HAVANA, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Modernization of the Soviet-made military equipment and training of Cuban military personnel will be the focus of Russian-Cuban military cooperation in the near future, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on Friday. Gen. Nikolai Makarov arrived on a working visit to Cuba on Monday, met with Cuban President Raul Castro and the country's military leadership, and visited a number of military installations.

"During the Soviet era we delivered a large number of military equipment to Cuba, and after all these years most of this weaponry has become obsolete and needs repairs," Makarov said.

"We inspected the condition of this equipment, and outlined the measures to be taken to maintain the defense capability of this country...I think a lot of work needs to be done in this respect, and I hope we will be able to accomplish this task," the general said.

Makarov said the Cuban request for assistance with training of military personnel will also be fully satisfied.

Although the Cuban leadership has repeatedly said it has no intention of resuming military cooperation with Russia after the surprise closure of the Russian electronic listening post in Lourdes in 2001, bilateral military ties seem to have been improving following the visit of Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to Cuba in July last year.

A group of Russian warships, led by the Admiral Chabanenko destroyer visited Cuba in December last year during a Caribbean tour.
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20090918/156170428.html
_____________________________________________________

"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html


4 posted on 09/23/2009 8:14:55 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

Is it wrong to hope Fidel gets run over by a truck tomorrow?


5 posted on 09/23/2009 8:15:15 PM PDT by DesertSapper (God, Family, Country . . . . . . . . . . and dead terrorists!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

Nikita Khrushchev and most of the Soviet military thought Castro was nuts according to Khrushchev son Sergei. I have met Sergi Khrushchev on one occasion.


6 posted on 09/23/2009 8:22:27 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("We will either find a way, or make one."Hannibal/Carthaginian Military Commander)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY
The study includes a sharp critique of American analyses of Soviet intentions, saying the Pentagon tended to err “on the side of overestimating Soviet aggressiveness.”

The best defense is a good offense. Thank God for Reagan and Weinberger.

7 posted on 09/23/2009 8:23:49 PM PDT by Bernard Marx ("Civilizations die by suicide, not from murder" Toynbee)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bernard Marx
Nikita Khrushchev and most of the Soviet military thought Castro was nuts

If that's the case why did Khrushchev decide to arm him with nuclear-capable missiles?

8 posted on 09/23/2009 8:25:53 PM PDT by Bernard Marx ("Civilizations die by suicide, not from murder" Toynbee)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: DesertSapper

Only if at least one of his special friends is not with him.


9 posted on 09/23/2009 8:28:09 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Half of the population is below average)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

And the UN just gave this totalitarian idiot an award.


10 posted on 09/23/2009 8:35:31 PM PDT by justa-hairyape
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY
The cold war was then in one of its chilliest phases. President Ronald Reagan had begun a trillion-dollar arms buildup, called the Soviet Union “an evil empire” and ordered scores of atomic detonations under the Nevada desert as a means of developing new arms. Some Reagan aides talked of fighting and winning a nuclear war.

Castro wanted to nuke the U.S. and of course the Times makes it look like it was Reagan's fault.

11 posted on 09/23/2009 10:08:18 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

This entire study seems to be kinda biased.. Anti-Reagan and pro-Soviet frankly. A lot of it contradicts recent reveltions on their intentions as well, especially stuff about them wanting to nuke europe.


12 posted on 09/23/2009 10:11:09 PM PDT by Tolsti2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson