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Written by dave

Category: Fort Leavenworth Year - 1963

Published: 06 September 2011

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The Cuban Missle Crises

The one major military thing that happened the year I was at Leavenworth, was the Cuban Missile Crises that pitted the Soviet Union leadership which had placed some Nuclear Weapons on Missiles pointed at the United States in Cuba, against an American President John F Kennedy, who had already been burned by the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Communist Cuba by Cuban exiles, backed - to a point - by the US through the CIA. He refused to permit US Air Force planes to fire on Cubans who were resisting the attempted invasion which was aimed at getting a popular uprising against Fidel Castro, who was still barely in control of the government of Cuba after his Communist overthrow of the western government. Castro turned for support to Soviet Russia. Young Kennedy's fortitude was unknown when up against Old Soviet Nikita Kruschev.

The story is well known. The US discovered by intelligence overflights that Soviet nuclear missiles were being quietly installed in Cuba, their installations were nearly ready to threaten at least the Southern United States.  And a convoy of Soviet Vessels were steaming toward Cuba with another load of missiles.

During the showdown, television monitors were put in the Leavenworth C&GSC student classrooms so we could at least hear the President's address to the nation.

Of course as we now know, the crises was averted when the men in the White House figured out a way to finesse the Soviet hard liners by backchanelling messages to Nikita that promised to deactivate the US Missiles which had been put in Turkey and Europe threatening the Soviets, in return for Russia removing their weapons in Cuba. And buying time by 'quaranteening' the Soviet fleet by US Navy forces, which stopped the Soviets in the water, without a shot being fired.  

Of course there were vigorous discussions in the Leavenworth Classes between students about the whole Cold War standoff, as well as the Crises itself.   

After I got involved in some of the discussions among officers, some of whom would eventually be staff or commanders at the highest US Military levels operating out of the Pentagon, my own creative juices began to flow.

What I was thinking ahead to, was how both the US and  Soviet leadership would react IF the negotiations broke down, a nuclear war started, and both America and Russia received nuclear strikes.

In fact I sat down and started to write a Play, that would probe these issues.

In the next Chapter I will summarize how my mind dealt with the grave possibility that we would, in fact, be in a Nuclear War sooner or later.

(continued)

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Written by dave

Category: Fort Leavenworth Year - 1963

Published: 08 September 2011

Hits: 3850

Well, I didn't have time to finish the play. Its fragments are somewhere in my stored papers.

But through its improbable (but possible - in one form or another) - with my reading of the profound difference between the political system of the Soviet Union and that of the United States - plot about the aftermath of the starts of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, I began to think through 'what if' such a war happened. And utterly apart from the actual destruction of the Washington seat of government, death, lingering effects of radiation, just HOW would Americans carry on.

My conclusion - that even with the distribution of political power spelled out in the Constitution and perpetuated by state and local laws - Americans would cope, get along, from the grass - prarie- roots of the country. Bottom up. While few other nations and especially the central authority nations like Russia and China would survive without chaos and civil wars.

Ironically, while I chose to think about the implications of the Cuban Missile Crises that averted Nuclear War, when I got to my next assignment - the Pentagon - that thinking and my understanding of the very nature of the American political system and values - emerged in a secret study I became part of - after I occupied, as an Army Lieutenant Colonel the Army staff action officer on the Soviet-American Test Ban Treaty.

For my next job put me where military officers have to think 'beyond' just military - but the very nature of the nation we are sworn to protect and defend. For it became increasingly apparent that my 'military' advice to my Army Chief of Staff, who as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, must advise the President has to take into account my best understanding of both the potential willingness and ability and the cultural-political limitations to carry out my 'purely military' recommendations.

General Harold K Johnson

One senior military person who made a deep impression on me while I was a student at the C&GS college, was the commander of the Post of Fort Leavenworth, and the College - Major General Harold K Johnson.

And the reason was, that apart from what he said and did at Leavenworth, I worked for him in the Pentagon, both when he was the Lt General Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, AND later Chief of Staff of the Army, as such, being a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - who was an advisor to the President in his capacity of Commander in Chief.

We students all knew that Gen Johnson had been in WWII, had been a Prisoner of War of the Japanese for 4 years suffering the Bataan Death March. But until I heard him philosophize about war and peace, I realized he was a deep thinker about such matters. And taught me a lot, especially when I had to do think-piece staff papers at the seat of governnent - whose recommendations might just become national policy. Scary thought/

So then class graduated. I got a big splendid Diploma. And turned my attention on where to live once I was assigned to the Army Staff in - interestingley enough 'Politico Military Plans and Policies' section of Operations (as distinct from Logistics, Intelligence, Personnel)

The office that Major Eisenhower worked in, as well as West Point's Political Science Professor Colonel Lincoln worked in - where he, alone, drew the 38th Parallel, that the State Department accepted,  that became the demarcation line between North and South Korea, in 1949.

An office that had no effective counterpart in either the Air Force or Navy Pentagon Staff.

To continue with my Military Years click… NEXT, Pentagon Years (1)

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Written by dave

Category: Fort Leavenworth Year - 1963

Published: 06 September 2011

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The Yankton Saga

The reason I am including this item, in my auto-biography is because it illuminates how I think about things – even national security-political crises such as the Cuban Missile Crises of 1962. I started writing it as a play in my reaction while I was a mid-grade (US Army Major) student at the Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth when the crises played itself out.

While I was very interested in what brought about that Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States and how skillful behind the scenes negotiations resolved it – I was more interested in the What If – nuclear war, or at least nuclear exchanges had occurred. Without, at that time, 1962, I was not privy to any high level Washington/Pentagon maneuverings about nuclear war (I was later, when I was assigned to the Pentagon, and worked on the Test Ban Treaty) I ‘imagined’ what might happen. So wrote it down as a play. I only will summarize the core ‘plot’ which I had thought through to its conclusion, but only had the time to write the play in it entirely.

But you will get the idea of how I viewed then – and still do - national decision making in the context of our political values.

The setting is in the basement of the County Court House in Yankton, South Dakota, a Midwestern town of approximately 14,000. (I selected it as symbolic of middle America, with core American values) It is getting dark and someone fires up a Coleman lantern, well known to ranchers and farmers, which gives light in the room.

The play opens in that basement room with about 7 men in it. Light is provided by a Coleman Lantern since electrical power is obviously off. Flashes of light can be seen through the small narrow basement windows. It looks like a thunderstorm would, except  those flashes are from nuclear explosions – all pretty distant – but unmistakable, for all those in the basement had been following the increasing crises in Washington as the Soviets and the US government on television, radio, and in the newspapers. And then the worst happened – nuclear war – starting with an exchange of nuclear missiles detonating over the US – and Russia – happened.

The 7 men who went to the basement  knew from fragmentary radio and local television that happened, and they were aware that something  big happened when repeated flashes in the night sky and more than natural  thunder rumbled across the Plains from the north – specifically North Dakota where a large number of Nuclear Missile silos exist at Minot, North Dakota. Which the Soviets would wreak as much destruction as possible on, to prevent  them all those American missiles being fired.

The men, fearing drifting southward radiation fallout went to the basement of the heavily constructed Court House as more protection. The office room in the basement has a water cooler, desks and a telephone.

One of the men is a Congressman from South Dakota, who happened to be in his home state and in Yankton when the war – and nuclear exchanges – started.

Then, in a bit of a stretch of credibility, but of possibility, the telephone rings. Someone picks it up. And answers that yes “Representative Smith is in Yankton, and in fact is here in the County Courthouse now”

The caller identifies himself as the Commanding General of the Strategic Air Command, in Nebraska and wants to speak to the Representative.

He explains that Washington, the seat of government has been virtually obliterated by nuclear strikes, that it appears that the President and Vice President are dead – or at least totally unreachable. And sitting Congress was struck and most Senators and Congressmen are presumed dead.

That SAC with lists of all Congressmen and their districts have been trying to reach any of them by the only means – telephone – which works only in some places in the US as major cities have been also struck. And Congressman Smith is the only one they have been able to talk to so far.

That, under the Constitution, and the Succession of Government under US law, the line of Commander in Chief goes through the Speaker of the House down into House members in the event of the death or incapacitation of the President and Vice President. That since Representative Smith is the only elected Congressman they can reach – you are the Commander in Chief, to whom I will advise and obey.

That the urgency of the matter is that SAC has received an Ultimatum from the Soviets via the Hot Line to Moscow that was shared in the White House, now gone. The Moscow end does not appear to have been destroyed totally. That in the current pause of nuclear exchange the Soviet government demand the surrender of the United States. That is that demand is not met within 8 hours, the nuclear firing on more American cities will continue.

As the General says these things, unheard by the other 6 or the audience, Representative Smith covers the mouth piece after each statement by the General, and he repeats the gist of his comments.

The SAC commander wants to know what the defacto Commander in Chief wants – surrender or continuation of the US firing on Soviet targets.

The rest of the play is the dialogue and debate between those men (and two women, one a school teacher) on what to do.

The Representative realizes the weight of such a decision, and first asks the SAC commander to tell what he can about just how much damage and death has been done in the US and in Russia, whether he can continue to attack and destroy Russia. And asks him to call back within an hour if he can.

The debate goes on he appears to be asking the others in the room what they would decide – collectively. And some ask, what would the Constitution say, but nobody has one with them.

Then the woman teacher says that upstairs in the County Courtroom, is a library of law books, and she knows because she took her 8^thgrade students there where they gave a copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence that is in their History book they gave the three justices, that it is on the shelf.

So she and one man with a flashlight take a deep breath and leave the room to go upstairs, while the remaining people discuss and then fall silent with not much left to say.

When the pair come back, with the 8^thGrade History Book, they turn to the Constitution pages in the back. Then someone says, why not read it aloud, and the Declaration of Independence too.

So they begin to read aloud both, passing the book between them. And at the end, someone speaks up and say that, they, the seven in  room are like local communities – and survivors – everywhere in the nation. They make their decision whom to elect to represent them, and then they vote on issues.

And another says that Russia – and its Soviet Union form of government in Russia – is not that way. They are top down, and brittle, looking to Moscow to tell them what to do. And the generals are probably in charge. Now most of Moscow is probably dead. While we are being asked by the most senior general what WE – you Representative Smith we elected – decide.

What would every small town – which are probably surviving – decide.  Lets take a vote.

And they vote on scraps of paper – secret ballot - 5 to 2 to continue the war

And when the General Calls back, Representative Smith tells him – in an even more authoritative voice - the citizens of Yankton, South Dakota, vote to continue the war. And so his decision is for the US Military to tell the Soviets, America has not surrendered, that the Soviets must surrender or call for a cease fire, or else the US will continue destroying their cities.

And the curtain comes down.