[lit-ideas] Re: Bet you didn't know Stanislav saved the world...
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 01:39:20 EDT
In a message dated 5/22/2004 8:56:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
with John Kennedy (one-on-ones with the President virtually never happened)
told Kennedy that no matter what the Russians do, not matter what, whether it
be invade France, invade Germany, no matter what they do, do not, under any
circumstances, do not use nuclear weapons.
We never actually took that advice to heart. The Ladder of Escalation was
always there, waiting for insane circumstances to give us a leg up.
During the 1970s NATO planned to counter a Soviet invasion of the Fulda Gap
by nuking sections of the Autobahn, sending radioactive fallout eastward with
the prevailing winds, and creating a radioactive hot zone to slow the Soviet
advance.
It was assumed that a massive Soviet troop advance would push NATO forces to
western France, and that only setting off "small" tactical nukes could delay
the Soviet advance long enough for reinforcements to shore up the beleaguered
NATO positions. Furthermore it was assumed that the Soviets would be willing to
force their troops through these hot zones at great cost in lives, and NATO
might have to counter with more powerful weapons.
To cap this folly, there were also plans to fight in the hot zones--troops
were trained for the " NBC" (nuke-bio-chem) "environment." Perhaps it was the
memory of their 1980s NBC-training that made now-senior Army staff so sanguine
about wearing gas masks up to Baghdad borough limits.
Not with a bang but an infomercial,
Eric
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