Purpose of 1969 Nuclear Alert Remains a Mystery

Now here's an interesting story about a little known nuclear alert event that had a whole fleet of US nuclear armed and ready B-52's circling in an oval pattern ready to bear down upon the Soviet Union in an operation called Giant Lance. It was very secret, but in reading through some of the linked pdf's about this, it becomes clear that no matter what kind of government, leaders can be prone to using the sheer power of nuclear weapons for their own purposes- regardless of the risks.

For two weeks in October 1969, the Nixon Administration secretly placed U.S. nuclear forces on alert. At the time, the move was considered so sensitive that not even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was briefed on its purpose. Still today, no conclusive explanation for the potentially destabilizing alert can be found. Even with full access to the classified record, State Department historians said in a new volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series that they were unable to provide a definitive account of the event.

I found this main story on FAS:
www.fas.org...

In one of the linked PDF's, The Madman Nuclear Alert:

On the evening of October10,1969,Gen. Earle Wheeler, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS),sent a top secret message to major U.S. military commanders around the world informing them that the JCS had been directed “by higher authority” to increase U.S. military readiness “to respond to possible confrontation by the Soviet Union.” The strategic Air Command (SAC) was ordered to stand down all aircraft combat training missions and to increase the number of nuclear-armed B-52 bombers on ground alert. These readiness measures were implemented on October 13. Even more dramatic, on October 27 SAC launched a series of B-52 bombers, armed with thermonuclear weapons, on a “show of force” airborne alert, code-named Giant Lance.

During this alert operation, eighteen B-52s took off from bases in California and Washington State. The bombers crossed Alaska, were refueled in midair by KC-135 tanker aircraft, and then flew in oval patterns toward the Soviet Union and back, on eighteen-hour "vigils" over the northern polar ice cap.

The PDF's linked in that article are extensive, and offer deep insight into the ramifications of such an action. This includes the relaxing of nuclear safety precautions, and the increased risk of a bad nuclear accident, all to make a political statement. But a weak political statement, and easily seen through by Russian intelligence- as history suggests there was no immediate counter measure taken by them or the Chinese.

And historians still don't know what the real reason was. Somehow I doubt Henry Kissinger is about to tell. But it does remind me of the nuclear incident at Barksdale. Intense compartmentalization and need to know basis within the MIC may have saved the world a few times already.

And here is a related link at the National Security Archive:

Washington, DC - July 31, 2006 - During the past year, indications that the Bush White House was seriously considering a "nuclear option" against Iranian nuclear sites understandably alarmed many in the press and public as well as the U.S. high command. Some treated such alleged planning as saber-rattling bluff, while others saw it as an example of a related madman strategy. These scenarios are not without historical precedent. From time to time during the Cold War and after, American officials tried to find ways of making nuclear weapons usable, not only for deterrence against Soviet attack but as "tactical" weapons in local conflicts or as a key element in a coercive strategy of threat-making by means of "atomic diplomacy."

www.gwu.edu...

Interesting ... never heard of it before. S&F.

I remember hearing from a "friend of a friend" once that we were "moments away from full on nuclear war. Not like Cuba.. this was real". He was talking about the late 60s, but I didn't catch anything else. I was too young and idealistic at the time to ask anything meaningful, but the words stuck in my head. This sure sounds like something he might have been talking about.

Never mind--the article was already linked

reply to post by rogerstigers


Yeah, this might have been it.

What I don't get is why. If the reason was an end to the Nam war, then why were all those B-52's set to respond to Russia? They were going to destroy the USSR because they were contemplating a pre-emptive strike on China?

Funny, maybe there are a bunch of Russian nuclear bombers in the air right now seeing as a pre-emptive strike on Iran appears to be more than contemplation at this point. I wish there were.

this is about the time Nixon was considering using the nuke on/ in Vietnam, to bring the war to a swift end , but had concerns about Russia, former USSR. cooler heads prevailed Henry Kissinger talked Nixon out of the use of nukes. here is the speech Nixon gave vietnam.vassar.edu... and from the speech

Second, we shall provide a shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of a nation allied with us or of a nation whose survival we consider vital to our security.

in other words it was already in action and here is the story of how and why the nukes were to be used www.gwu.edu... from the link

The second recently declassified document bearing on the nuclear question is dated October 2, 1969, and consists of two cover memoranda from Kissinger to Nixon introducing a long report prepared by NSC staffers on the current state of military planning for Duck Hook (see documents 2 - 2I). The report and its attachments explained that the basic objective of the prospective operation was to coerce Hanoi "to negotiate a compromise settlement through a series of military blows," which would walk a fine line between inflicting "unacceptable damage to their society" and bringing about "the total destruction of the country or the regime, which would invite major outside intervention [by the USSR or the PRC]."

this is why the B 52 were "on station" I hope this solves the question and that yes some in power are quick to think of using nukes but cooler heads do prevail.