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Operation Giant Lance
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Operation Giant Lance
Operation Giant Lance was a secret U.S. nuclear alert operation by the United States that the Strategic Air Command carried out in late October 1969. Giant Lance was one component of a multi-pronged military exercise, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test that the Joint Chiefs developed and carried out during October 1969 in response to White House orders. On 10 October 1969, on the advice of National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, U.S. President Richard Nixon issued the order for the readiness test that led to Giant Lance.
Preparations were made to send a squadron of eighteen B-52s of the 92nd Strategic Aerospace Wing loaded with nuclear weapons to fly over northern Alaska in the direction of the Soviet Union, in sorties of 6 bombers at a time. The squadron took off on 27 October and flew towards the Soviet Union. Actions were designed to be detectable by the Soviets. Nixon terminated the operation on October 30.
According to the U.S. Department of State, there are two main "after-the-fact explanations" regarding the purpose of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test: one was to convince the Soviets that Nixon was willing to resort to nuclear war in order to win the Vietnam War, the other was to deter Soviet's possible nuclear attack against the People's Republic of China. In the first explanation, the Readiness Test was part of Nixon's madman theory, a concept based on game theory, and its details remained unknown to the public until Freedom of Information Act requests in the 2000s revealed documents about the operation. On the other hand, the second interpretation is consistent with U.S. intelligence reports which indicated that the Soviet leadership was considering a preemptive strike against Chinese nuclear facilities, and in October 1969 the Soviet indeed abandoned its attack against China. Researchers have also called the second interpretation logically the most likely one.
After the Zhenbao Island incident in March 1969, the Soviet Union planned to launch a massive nuclear strike on the People's Republic of China. Soviet diplomat Arkady Shevchenko mentioned in his memoir that "the Soviet leadership had come close to using nuclear arms on China"; he further mentioned that Andrei Grechko, Soviet's Minister of Defence at the time, called for "unrestricted use of the multimegaton bomb known in the West as the 'blockbuster'", in order to "once and for all to get rid of the Chinese threat". As a turning point during the Cold War, this crisis almost led to a nuclear war, seven years after the Cuban missile crisis.
Vietnam War tensions were high and were a major driver of Nixon's decision to initiate the operation. The war was one of the primary challenges Nixon sought to address on becoming president, and led to him devising a plan to both end the war and gain international and domestic credibility for the United States as a result. By launching Operation Giant Lance, Nixon aimed to increase war tensions by raising the United States' nuclear threat through a "show of force" alert. These operations acted as a prequel to Nixon's eventual Operation Duck Hook, which was declassified in 2005. The primary goal of these operations was to pressure the Soviets to get their North Vietnamese ally to agree to peace terms favorable to the United States.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Earle Wheeler ordered the operation as a part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test On 27 October 1969, eighteen B-52 bomber aircraft began the operation, accompanied by KC-135 tankers to refuel and support the extended patrol of the squadron. The bombers flew in sorties of 6 bombers at a time. The U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) was used to deploy the aircraft from air bases both in California and Washington State in secrecy. The bombers were checked throughout the day, standing by for immediate deployment.
Even the most senior U.S. military leaders were not informed of the purpose of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test, during and after the alert. The operation was intended to be a precautionary measure, boasting operational readiness in case of military retaliation from either East Asia or Russia.
According to the U.S. Department of State, there are two main "after-the-fact explanations" regarding the purpose of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test. In the first interpretation, the operation's intended goal was to directly support Operation Duck Hook as a part of the "show of force" alert; Nixon believed that this would coerce Moscow and Hanoi into a peace treaty through the Paris peace talks with the Soviets, on terms that were advantageous to the United States. In the second interpretation, the outcome of the operation was thought to have deterred Soviet's attack against China and promoted the credibility of the United States intervention in the Sino-Soviet conflict to its general public in the war. Researchers have also called the second interpretation logically the most likely one.
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Operation Giant Lance
Operation Giant Lance was a secret U.S. nuclear alert operation by the United States that the Strategic Air Command carried out in late October 1969. Giant Lance was one component of a multi-pronged military exercise, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test that the Joint Chiefs developed and carried out during October 1969 in response to White House orders. On 10 October 1969, on the advice of National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, U.S. President Richard Nixon issued the order for the readiness test that led to Giant Lance.
Preparations were made to send a squadron of eighteen B-52s of the 92nd Strategic Aerospace Wing loaded with nuclear weapons to fly over northern Alaska in the direction of the Soviet Union, in sorties of 6 bombers at a time. The squadron took off on 27 October and flew towards the Soviet Union. Actions were designed to be detectable by the Soviets. Nixon terminated the operation on October 30.
According to the U.S. Department of State, there are two main "after-the-fact explanations" regarding the purpose of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test: one was to convince the Soviets that Nixon was willing to resort to nuclear war in order to win the Vietnam War, the other was to deter Soviet's possible nuclear attack against the People's Republic of China. In the first explanation, the Readiness Test was part of Nixon's madman theory, a concept based on game theory, and its details remained unknown to the public until Freedom of Information Act requests in the 2000s revealed documents about the operation. On the other hand, the second interpretation is consistent with U.S. intelligence reports which indicated that the Soviet leadership was considering a preemptive strike against Chinese nuclear facilities, and in October 1969 the Soviet indeed abandoned its attack against China. Researchers have also called the second interpretation logically the most likely one.
After the Zhenbao Island incident in March 1969, the Soviet Union planned to launch a massive nuclear strike on the People's Republic of China. Soviet diplomat Arkady Shevchenko mentioned in his memoir that "the Soviet leadership had come close to using nuclear arms on China"; he further mentioned that Andrei Grechko, Soviet's Minister of Defence at the time, called for "unrestricted use of the multimegaton bomb known in the West as the 'blockbuster'", in order to "once and for all to get rid of the Chinese threat". As a turning point during the Cold War, this crisis almost led to a nuclear war, seven years after the Cuban missile crisis.
Vietnam War tensions were high and were a major driver of Nixon's decision to initiate the operation. The war was one of the primary challenges Nixon sought to address on becoming president, and led to him devising a plan to both end the war and gain international and domestic credibility for the United States as a result. By launching Operation Giant Lance, Nixon aimed to increase war tensions by raising the United States' nuclear threat through a "show of force" alert. These operations acted as a prequel to Nixon's eventual Operation Duck Hook, which was declassified in 2005. The primary goal of these operations was to pressure the Soviets to get their North Vietnamese ally to agree to peace terms favorable to the United States.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Earle Wheeler ordered the operation as a part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test On 27 October 1969, eighteen B-52 bomber aircraft began the operation, accompanied by KC-135 tankers to refuel and support the extended patrol of the squadron. The bombers flew in sorties of 6 bombers at a time. The U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) was used to deploy the aircraft from air bases both in California and Washington State in secrecy. The bombers were checked throughout the day, standing by for immediate deployment.
Even the most senior U.S. military leaders were not informed of the purpose of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test, during and after the alert. The operation was intended to be a precautionary measure, boasting operational readiness in case of military retaliation from either East Asia or Russia.
According to the U.S. Department of State, there are two main "after-the-fact explanations" regarding the purpose of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test. In the first interpretation, the operation's intended goal was to directly support Operation Duck Hook as a part of the "show of force" alert; Nixon believed that this would coerce Moscow and Hanoi into a peace treaty through the Paris peace talks with the Soviets, on terms that were advantageous to the United States. In the second interpretation, the outcome of the operation was thought to have deterred Soviet's attack against China and promoted the credibility of the United States intervention in the Sino-Soviet conflict to its general public in the war. Researchers have also called the second interpretation logically the most likely one.