Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>This context in recent news. Late 60's (?) images of Russian ICBM's >being paraded in Red Square which then gets televised >internationally. The fact is that USSR technology at the time wasn't >quite up to speed and the missiles were fabrications to make the i>nternational media/politicians etc. believe the USSR was capable of >nuclear strike. Not only this, but instead of making governments look >after social services etc. it helped create an arms race Hi Gary That's a good story. The classic example is a little earlier. The Soviets produced their first intercontinental jet bomber (I think it was the Bison) but they only had a handful. So on May Day they flew them in lazy circles around Moscow for the benefit of western iontelligence agents who thought they were seeing waves of the things. Thus was born the "Bomber Gap." My understanding is that by the early sixties with the advent of the U2 and later satellites these sort of tricks diminished in importance. Kennedy came in talking about a missile gap, but in fact the Eisenhower Administration knew the gap was in favor of the US. They just couldn't say so for fear of giving away just how good our intel capability was. Milsec is such fun. Simon Stevens Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Class of '01 Washington, DC.