“This Would be the Signal for General Nuclear War”-1958 Global Meltdown Style

According to the US Air Force, it was ready and willing to drop nuclear bombs on Communist China at the outset of the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. This 13 August 1958 State Department memo describes blow-by-blow how a dispute over two islands in the Taiwan Strait could have evolved into “general nuclear war between the US and the USSR.”

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From the US Air Force hisotry, Air Opperations in the Taiwan Crisis of 1958.

This memo, sent to President Eisenhower’s Under Secretary of State, Christian Herter, depicts how nuclear war between the USA and USSR could have evolved from a dispute between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China over the islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Taiwan held these two strategically important islands, but the PRC also claimed (and shelled) them. America’s “existing contingent war plans,” derived from its 1954 security agreement with Taiwan, “call[ed] for the defense of Quemoy and Matsu by nuclear strikes deep into Communist China, including military targets in the Shanghai-Hangchow-Nanking and Canton complexes where population density is extremely high.“

The memo’s author, the Department of State’s Director of Policy Planning, Gerald C. Smith, predicted that these nuclear strikes -“comparable to the 20 KT weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”- would lead to millions of “non-combat [read: civilian] casualties.”

And that would not be the end. According to a contemporaneous National Intelligence Estimate, “If our present military planning was carried out Peiping [Beijing] and its Soviet ally would probably feel compelled to react with nuclear attacks at least on Taiwan and on the [US] Seventh Fleet. Under our present strategic concept, this would be the signal for general nuclear war between the US and USSR.”

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In August 1958, five nuclear capable B-47 bombers on Guam were placed on alert.

At the height of the crisis, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approached Eisenhower “for permission to use nuclear weapons at the outset of hostilities,” the President overruled them and clarified that “under no circumstances would these weapons be used without his approval.”

The Air Force history concluded –with an almost melancholy tone– that after Eisenhower’s strong rebuke of first use, “The armed forces must expect civil authority to impose tight controls on them in times of emergency.”

13 page memo link: nsarchive.files.wordpress.com...
Source: nsarchive.wordpress.com...
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Wow, what a snapshot of our history and nuclear weapons. I think, we as a nation, and the rest of the citizens of the world forget how crazy those times were. Add in the Berlin Airlift, Korean War, Cuba, etc etc.... I am glad cooler heads prevailed and lets hope they do again.

But, I can't help but feel that this time around, nukes will be used-by whom? I don't know for sure, only guesses. Time will tell.

What is our legal claim
to protecting Taiwan
from China?
They are
an ally.



[edit on 14-5-2010 by davidgrouchy]

These stories are bull as people in america are always ready to kill,a nd torture its there history afterall. To say americans wanted to kill someone at some time in the past is like saying the sky is blue.

Americans have probably had people in there ransk that wanted to nuke every country on earth, whats new about that. We all know there thirst for torturing and killing people.

reply to post by andy1033




If we were such murdering bastards, we would have done the planet 10 times over by now. We would have made sure we got everyone while we were at it. But we didnt, and we dont, and when it happens and we find out about it, we condone it and punish those guilty of doing it. We have a govt that hides things from its people, but when the people find out about it, we have a # fit(put it mildly). You fail to realize that not only does our rulers rule us, they also rule everyone else around the world in ways they dont even realize. Us Americans, We are the people from families ALL OVER the world. Anytime I think of us going to war, I feel as if I am going to war with a friend of mine because our parents were so Damned ignorant towards one another. And when they have their ways set, its marked in stone.

People like saying that American people are the devil and all of that, but all in all I think there have been WAY MORE GOOD American people who have contributed then there has been bad types.

When THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA ,THE PEOPLE OF CHINA,THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA, THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN AND KOREA(Both Sides),THE PEOPLE OF IRAN AND IRAQ,THEPEOPLEOF AFRICA, THE PEOPLE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC, AND THE PEOPLE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,ect, ect, finally realize that they are being forced upon one another in violent and nonviolent means because of a few damned people and their stupid ideology, then the quicker it will become for ALL OF US to kick their asses out and put in people that WE ALL KNOW WILL BE TRUE to the words that they express. PEOPLE WE TRUST...Not people Our deligates trust. Or people who think that THEY are the only ones capable of achieving such a feat.
But this is all fantasy and you want to know why? Because people are better at talking about things they think should be changed rather than actually changing them . Such as yourself. What have you contributed?
Yea, the world is bad, make it better, dont cry about it.


...I know, down with America...