The year is 1969, and North Korea has long been a thorn in the US's side.
Backed up by the Soviet Union, North Korea's aggression towards the south is kept in check
only by a very tight leash held by the Kremlin, and the threat of American military response.
However, the North Koreans chafe against the presence of the Americans on the peninsula,
the only roadblock in their quest to unite the two nations by force.
In order to keep tabs on Communist Bloc nations, the United States operates a reconnaissance
program known as Beggar Shadow.
The program uses spy aircraft flying safely over international waters and well away from
the air space of the nations they are monitoring- yet their powerful radars and eavesdropping
technologies allow them to pick up communications between military units deep inside hostile
territory.
At 7am on Tuesday, 15th of April 1969, an American EC-121M with the call sign Deep Sea
129 ( one two nine) took off from naval air station Atsugi in Japan and made for the Korean
coast.
Aboard it were eight officers and twenty three enlisted men, and their task was routine by
now: loiter near the korean coast and eavesdrop on North Korean communications.
The flight route would take it within 50 miles (90km) of the korean coast where it would
fly a racetrack- like route that would take it north near the Soviet Union's coast before
turning back for Osan Air Base in South Korea.
Rated as 'minimal risk', the mission had been carried out for two years without incident,
and in the first three months of 1969 almost 200 similar missions had already been flown
by the US Navy and Air Force.
This day however was different, and at 12:34 local time, six hours into the mission, radars
in south Korea detected the takeoff of two North Korean Mig 21s.
Assuming that they were responding to Deep Sea 129, the planes were tracked and the spy
plane was warned, but being safely over international waters, it wasn't believed the plane was in
danger.
Then suddenly an hour after they took off, the jets made for Deep Sea 129 at what was
clearly closing speed, and the american plane was warned.
Deep Sea 129 immediately aborted its mission and returned to base, but the supersonic North
Korean jets quickly caught up with it.
On radar, American operators watched as the two radar tracks merged, and then Deep Sea
129's track disappeared.
Initially none of the agencies involved were concerned, as protocol dictated that Deep
Sea descend below radar coverage if threatened by hostile aircraft.
Though these early model Mig 21s did not carry onboard radar, conditions allowed the Mig
pilots to visually spot Deep Sea 129.
Soon it became clear the North Koreans had downed the plane with an air-to-air missile.
Immediately after the attack, North Korean military forces went into high readiness.
Back in Washington, President Nixon and his staff received news of the attack.
Nixon was furious, but more than that- he was drunk too.
Aides had described Nixon as having developed bouts of insomnia, and as having taken to
drinking.
He had begun to display extreme bouts of aggression, further fueled by his growing reliance on
alcohol- and when he got the call that night that the North Koreans had downed an American
plane flying over international waters, Nixon's anger grew to apocalyptic levels.
31 Americans were dead, and Nixon immediately got on the phone with the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and ordered them to produce a list of targets for a tactical nuclear strike.
American nuclear bombers immediately went on standby as the Joint Chiefs drew up a list
of recommendations for nuclear strikes deep inside North Korea.
Within an hour, a list of targets was drawn up and sent to Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national
security adviser, even as American planes prepared to carry out what may be the opening
shots of World War III.
The targets listed gave Nixon two options: a series of attacks to serve as a punitive
action against North Korea, or a full-blown nuclear attack that would crush the regime
and prevent a large scale war... mostly by leaving little of North Korea behind.
The first list included twelve targets ranging from command centers to airfields and naval
bases, and incredibly despite the use of twelve ten kiloton nuclear weapons, would produce
casualties as few as 100 to a few thousand.
The second list however included the use of 70 kiloton nuclear weapons to destroy all
of North Korea's major air fields as well as its command and control centers.
Casualties would be in the tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands- though the
vast majority of them would be military personnel.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff were highly alarmed by Nixon's demand for a nuclear retaliation,
as was Kissinger.
If forced to carry out the attack, as Nixon had every legal right to do, the military
warned that if they were going to strike with nuclear weapons, then they had best go all
out and avoid the possibility of North Korea putting up much of a retaliation against forces
in the South.
This of course would immediately launch a war on the peninsula, but it was thought that
North Korean forces would be so devastated, they'd be able to offer little resistance.
Launching on the first list of targets with the smaller-scale tactical nukes would only
provoke North Korea into full-scale war, and with most of its forces intact.
Yet while North Korea could be utterly devastated in a surprise nuclear attack, the fallout-
political and not just radiological- would be catastrophic for the United States.
For the second time in history the US would launch a nuclear attack as an offensive measure,
and this time it would utterly devastate an entire country in a surprise attack- a nuclear
Pearl Harbor.
This would completely destabilize relations with the Soviet Union and China both, and
possibly prompt a nuclear response from the Russians.
Even if there was no nuclear response from the Soviet Union, it would prove to the Soviets
that a trigger-happy madman was in charge of things in the White House, and that nuclear
war could be one drink away.
This would make the careful system of checks and balances between the US and the Soviet
Union that had so far averted nuclear conflict fall completely apart.
Thankfully Henry Kissinger postponed presenting the attack options to President Nixon until
he had sobered up in the morning, by which time the prospect of launching a full-scale
nuclear war seemed like a much less attractive option.
Instead, the United States sent a Task Force lead by the aircraft carriers Enterprise,
Ticonderoga, Ranger, and Hornet to patrol off Korean waters and ensure the safety of
all aircraft flying in the region- this would be the largest concentration of firepower
in the region since the Korean War.
For their part, the Soviet Union immediately dispatched two destroyers upon hearing of
the downing of Deep Sea 129 in an effort to attempt to locate any surviving crew members
and rescue them, or at the very least to secure the remains of the American airmen.
The act was not just one of solidarity between the two Cold War rivals, but also meant to
signal to Pyongyang how deeply displeased Moscow was with the shooting down of Deep
Sea 129.
What do you think would have happened if Nixon had launched a nuclear strike against North
Korea?
Is it too easy for an off-the-rails president to launch a nuclear attack?
Let us know in the comments!
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