GERMAN-CUBA MAIL CENSORED BY U.S.?
An old Nazi custom seems to have been preserved by U.S. occupation forces in West Germany, The news magazine Der Spiegel charged October 21 that the U.S. Army screens all private mail between West Germany and-Cuba. The magazine backed its charge by publishing samples of microfilmed corres~ pondence,
Under an agreement signed in 1955, the United States, Britain and.. France retained the privilege, as conquering powers, of censoring mail. and tapping telephones in West Germany.
The total annual volume of West German ‘nail to Cuba, according to
Der Spiegel is 160,000 letters. and postcards.
"THE FIRST ALL-OUT NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION"
Everyone who yearns for a world of enduring peace should note down for must reading ah article in the October 28 Newsweek titled "October, 1962 -- The Cuba Crisis: Nuclear War Was-Hours Away."
Revealing new details about the crisis, Newsweek declares: "The U.S. and the U.5.S.R. stood frighteningly close tou wer, the- world terrifyingly close to destruction. It was the first all-out nuclear confrontation in history."
The description of the scenes in the deep corridors below the Penta~ gon sounds as incredible as something out of science fiction, In a central control room where some thirty top officers of the general staff had "their forefingers pointed at the ultimate buttons, " they "could see a small box which relayed radar readings of BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) from stations across. the top of North America; flashing numbers would count Russian missiles fired at the U.S. and predict their toll. Nearby hung a U.S. map, where NUDETS (Nuclear Detection System) would show in red dots wherever a nuclear weapon might strike,"
Seven officers and sergeants had control of the final pushbutton. “One officer and one sergeant carried holstered ,38-caliber pistols, bone=
handled, snub-nosed weapons. intended only to shoot any member of the team who might crumble under pressure and threaten to set off war on his own panteny impulse." [What if he didn't "threaten" but just acted under panic?
All that was needed was a "Klaxon signal" from Kennedy and a coded message would flash out to all Strategic Air Commands from "Alaska to Guam, Spain to England, The coded message: go to war,"
In this "practice run" in "nuclear confrontation" here is whet Ken-= nedy had set loose:
"The controls in the War Room that week showed that 90 Be52s packed with 25— and 50=-megaton bombs were constantly crisscrossing the Atlantic, awaiting the order to go. On the ground, 550 more loaded Be52s, 800 lighter B-47s, and 70 faster and newer B=58 Rustlers were standing by. Eignt Polaris’ submarines in the North Atlantic had their 128 missiles trained on Russia, In the Mediterranean and China seas, Sixth and Seventh Fleet aircraft carriers had nuclear bombers poised for take~off. Across the U.S., 102 Atlas, 54 Titan, and twelve Minuteman ICBM's (intercontin-~ -ental ballistic missiles) sat’ on their launching pads... .
"While this awesome nuclear air armada assembled, other services too were one step short of war at DEFCON 2. [The "Defense Condition" just below DEFCON 1 "which is war."] The Army had put together the biggest invasion force since World War II, rushing about 100,000 men to the South» east, principally Florida, where they could be ferried the 90 miles to Guba. Besides those 100,000, said Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, Army- Chief of- Staff, he had 10,000 to Bo, 000 more for backup support. - . « Marines, thousands-strong, also moved into Florida... Le
So far as Kennedy was concerned, this was it, and the whole top com= mand waited for the Klaxon. ao, rae oo.
- "When I went down to the command post, I had a feeling I never had before," an Air Force captain is reported to recall. "I wondered if I. would see my wife and kids again. I felt we were near to war,
_ In the control room where officers sat in "eighteen softly uphol-~ stered, beige cloth-covered chairs," "Panoramic screens seanned U.S, outposts around the globe, bulb-elustered boxes showed troop movements, lighted maps flashed with blobs of color, each indicating a nuclear warplane or missile aimed and ‘cocked! at millions of human beings who lived on in ignorance of their peril,"
“Ana then?
"and then Khrushchev flinched. The drooping but still vigilant men in the War Room could draw a deep, shuddering breath: the world could live for yet a while,"
As Newsweek puts it, "It was the first all-out nuclear confrontation in history.
When will-.the second one occur?
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OPERATION "BIG LIFT"