And w/ their passing we mark a
rounded anniv. of yet another something.
On October 15, the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center reviewed the U-2 photographs and identified objects that they interpreted as medium range ballistic missiles. That evening, the CIA notified the Department of State and at 8:30 pm EDT, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy elected to wait until morning to tell the President. Secretary of Defens Robert McNamara was briefed at midnight. The next morning, Bundy met with Kennedy and showed him the U-2 photographs and briefed him on the CIA's analysis of the images.
Fuck Wikipedia, here's Chomsky:
Another candidate is October 26th. That day has been selected as “the most dangerous moment” by B-52 pilot Major Don Clawson, who piloted one of those NATO aircraft and provides a hair-raising description of details of the Chrome Dome (CD) missions during the crisis -- “B-52s on airborne alert” with nuclear weapons “on board and ready to use.” October 26th was the day when “the nation was closest to nuclear war,” he writes in his “irreverent anecdotes of an Air Force pilot,” Is That Something the Crew Should Know? On that day, Clawson himself was in a good position to set off a likely terminal cataclysm. He concludes, “We were damned lucky we didn’t blow up the world -- and no thanks to the political or military leadership of this country.”
2 comments:
So close. I have no idea how managed to not blow ourselves up.
On a positive note, remember that there are still somewhere around 5000 nuclear bombs on this planet.
Atomic Nihilism Editor:
Read yesterday that the United Snakes & Russia still have about 800 ICBMs pointed at each other & ready to launch. This must be the source:
Although U.S. and Russian Presidents have jointly declared that relations between their nations have been “reset”, and that nuclear war between them is now “unthinkable”, this is hardly true. U.S. and Russian strategic war plans still contain large nuclear strike options with hundreds of preplanned targets, which clearly include cities and urban areas in each other’s nation.
Furthermore, the American and Russian Presidents both have the power to authorize and initiate a nuclear attack in a matter of a few seconds. They are constantly accompanied by a military officer who carries a ‘nuclear briefcase’, a special communication device that allows either President to almost instantly order the launch of their nuclear forces. This launch order requires only a few minutes to carry out, because the U.S. and Russia still keep more than 800 ballistic missiles armed with at least 1739 strategic nuclear warheads at high-alert, always ready to fire.
So we can still blow ourselves off the planet. Yay!!
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