If you haven't seen Miracle Mile, you're missing a real treat.
Posted on 10/25/2015 6:26:44 PM PDT by sparklite2
A nuclear weapons command exercise by NATO in November 1983 prompted fear in the leadership of the Soviet Union that the maneuvers were a cover for a nuclear surprise attack by the United States, triggering a series of unparalleled Soviet military responses, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence review that has just been declassified.
“In 1983, we may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger,” the review concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Of course, with the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty, they were perfectly willing to let the rest of Europe suffer enormous losses at the hand of Nazi Germany, while they grabbed the near abroad for themselves.
I went to a Soviet bookstore at the Canadian National Exposition during the Cold War. The books were very inexpensive, so I grabbed a few. When I got home, I realized they were cheap because this was a way of distributing propaganda.
One of the books was The History of British Foreign Policy in World War II. They wouldn’t come out and outright lie as to the facts of the war but the spin they put on those facts would leave you dizzy. If they believed themselves the hooey they wanted us to believe, they were one deluded bunch.
You could always ask Putin. He would have insider knowledge about Soviet paranoia.
That ring of ABM’s is still there, and it has been expanded and made more potent by Putin. There is also likely one covering St. Petersburg/Leningrad. The Chinese may also have their own ABM ring around Beijing.
Actually, I have a chemist friend who grew up and went to university in the USSR. Next time I talk to him, I’ll ask.
And we’ve got ... leading from behind with hope and change.
That is a very important point. I think they really believed we were a threat. I think many still do. As for the rest of the propaganda you speak of, I suspect much of it they knew was a lie. They used it as a tool of war. How much of that is still happening I cannot even guess.
I do think this same sort of reality/belief/propaganda play happens in all politics. The stakes are not always as high, but the means are similar.
I figured you knew, but just in case...
I think you’re right. And if it isn’t universal, it should be. I thinking specifically of the Radio Liberty and Voice of America broadcasts that, far from being pro-American propaganda, we’re anti-US screeds, 24/7, paid for by you and me. Are we the most self-hating, suicidal nation in history?
Interesting, I was deployed to an island in the Atlantic during this timeframe in 1983 when the Soviets flooded the Atlantic with Boomers and the Med with fast attacks. The flap lasted for nearly a month. It really was an interesting time.
This article is about a supposed crisis a year after the real crisis occurred.
So there I was standing in a phone booth in Los Angeles in March 1982 calling a girl from work. Was thinking about asking her for a date.
Instead, her mother answered the phone. Now, I knew from the girl that her mom was a Hungarian immigrant.
She said, “My daughter told me about you. You are an Academy grad, yes?”
I replied in the affirmative.
She went on, “I am not supposed to talk about this on an open line, but I have been recalled to duty”.
I thought that was strange as she was about 55 years old. I asked, “What branch of service were you?”
She replied, “I was a career CIA agent. I am being recalled because at this moment, we are very close to thermonuclear war. The Russian boomers are up on our continental shelf with their missile doors open. We are in great danger.”
At this point, my BS meter was pegging out. I politely made chit chat and asked to talk to her daughter.
I wondered how a civilian knew that Soviet SLBM subs were called boomers and that being close to our coast with missile doors open was a sign of imminent launch.
I dismissed the entire incident.
A few years later in a classified briefing, I found out that every word she said was true.
Andropov had gone to the Politburo and insisted that the Cowboy Reagan would definitely attack. He said the USSR must attack first.
However, for once, the CIA did their job and found out about the war preparations.
Reagan sent a stern letter to the Politburo letting them know that we KNEW and would retaliate massively in the event of an attack.
Once again, showing strength and resolve averted war.
Let it always be so.
That is a great and amazing story.
Wow. Thanks for that.
This impression helped President Reagan.
So that has been declassified?
“I wondered how a civilian knew that Soviet SLBM subs were called boomers and that being close to our coast with missile doors open was a sign of imminent launch.”
Yeahhhhhh,,,, sitting their with their door open. And grandma got called back. Opening doors is what you do as you launch.
...a mild-mannered economist named Gus Weiss... worked down the hall from me in the Nixon administration... Weiss said: "Why not help the Soviets with their shopping? Now that we know what they want, we can help them get it." ...The technology topping the Soviets' wish list was for computer control systems to automate the operation of the new trans-Siberian gas pipeline. When we turned down their overt purchase order, the KGB sent a covert agent into a Canadian company to steal the software; tipped off by Farewell, we added what geeks call a Trojan horse to the pirated product. "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire," writes Reed, "to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space." Our Norad monitors feared a nuclear detonation, but satellites that would have picked up its electromagnetic pulse were silent. That mystified many in the White House, but "Gus Weiss came down the hall to tell his fellow NSC staffers not to worry. It took him another 20 years to tell me why." Farewell stayed secret because the blast in June 1982, estimated at three kilotons, took place in the Siberian wilderness, with no casualties known. Nor was the red-faced KGB about to complain publicly about being tricked by bogus technology... Vetrov was caught and executed in 1983. A year later, Bill Casey ordered the KGB collection network rolled up, closing the Farewell dossier. Gus Weiss died from a fall a few months ago. Now is a time to remember that sometimes our spooks get it right in a big way.
I was in Woomera, Australia when that happened. We were battening down the hatches--thought the balloon was going up then and there. Took awhile but we calmed and started wondering, WTF????
This was roughly the same timeframe as the KAL 007 event; surprised no one’s mentioned it.
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