What Was the American Nuclear War Plan? - Cold War DOCUMENTARY
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2022
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Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the American Strategic Air Command - the institution in charge of the preparation for a possible nuclear war. In this video we will discuss how prepared the US was for it.
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"I refuse to differentiate between bad luck and incompetence". Curtis LeMay
Although it's been modified thru the years, amazing that the B-52 is still in active service today.
it's possible that it could be a 100-year old airframe design by the time it is actually retired from service.
They would fire long range missiles to stay out of range of enemy SAMs and fighters though, because they wouldn't stand a chance otherwise
It makes me wonder..will an airframe developed today still be in use 70-80-90 years into our future? Or is the B 52 such a perfect one off that its design is brilliant for decade after decade? Guess we'll see.
@@michaelfisher7170 i could see a composite heavy bomber descended from the Boeing 787 having a 100 year lifespan. Honestly the 787 is a wonder plane.
I honestly don't get why the b52 has endured so long other than the strength of the airframes... The rudder is too small and they are hauling around tons of disused wiring from ancient systems no longer in use. I can only assume it's because the US air force can't bring itself to write a bomber specification that is merely "good enough" vs "alien level stealth tech wunderwaffen"
@@throwback19841 cost, it's cheaper to maintain/upgrade an existing airframe than go through the whole process to introduce a new one
Back in the early 80's. My parents were stationed at Fairchild AFB. My mom was in supply for one of the B-52 squadrons there. While my step-dad was a Survival Instructor. I had a few occasions been able to get up close, in the cockpit and actually walk on the top of a B-52.
The B-52 still remains one of my favorite aircraft.
I was there also as Security Police 1977 to 1982!!
The story is LeMay kept an unlit cigar in his mouth all the time b/c he had developed Bell's Palsy while testing O2 masks in a high altitude chamber as a young pilot. By always having a cigar in his mouth, his drooping mouth was not noticeable.
Thinking of B-52 and SAAC, one will not fail to think of Vietnam War. Hope there will be an episode about how the air forces on both sides performed in Vietnam.
Agreed. I'd go as far as to say the B-52 and its evolving missions and configurations deserves its own episode.
I always think b36 peacemaker when I think SAC
B36 (and B47) unfortunately is (are) the forgotten bomber(s). Got outperformed and overshadowed by B52 big time. B58 and B1 got superseded by the old B52 as well.
@@tng2057 b52 is an amazing aircraft and will probably still be flying long after I am laid into my grave, but I can't help but love b36 because it's just crazy...six turning, four burning!
no argument. The B52 is the AK 47 of bombers. It was crude enough to be versatile in any situation. It may well see a century of service. Some families are 3d and 4th generation B52 pilots.
Great work as always. Maybe a video about Romania under Ceausescu, we were kind of “independent” from the rest of the Eastern Bloc and a maverick regime that was not liked by the USSR.
I may be mistaken, but I think he did a video on exactly that.
10 years on the platform and no subs, lemme change that quick
Liked by neither the East, West and Romania itself.
Trying to retain experienced crews reminds me of today's business environment where it is common to not only change jobs, but careers, several times. Also, now I know why the Air Force gets such great food!
If you need someone to kick people into cheerful organization, hire Curtis LeMay.
But don't ever allow him to make decisions beyond that.
We Wish to have a feature episode about Paraguay under General Alfredo Stroessner and Uruguay under a civic-military dictatorship as well as the Philippines under Ferdinand E. Marcos
I think some videos on the various governments in South and Central America would be really interesting.
Speaking to a US Air Force pilot flying reconnaissance over Russia “Maybe, if we do this overflight right, we can get World War 3 started.”
Commander US Airforce General Curtis LeMay 1954.
"Peace is our Profession...
...War is just a Hobby"
I actually really like the model of our nukes being controlled by civilians, rather than the military.
The deployment of nukes is, like the military itself, controlled by the civilian government. And has always been.
inb4 r/noncredibledefense gets to control the American nuclear arsenal
Bad news they are not its all sac all day baby ! Spooky !
Technically they are under civilian control.
Great epsiode. Please do an episode on Strategic Air Command's Bomb/Recon/Nav/Missile Competitons! Not only was it a fun, and competitive, means for the SAC to demonstrate their skills it was also a public demonstration of the proficiency of SAC.
If you're interested and need more info, I bet the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Ne, has some resources on the topic.
It is amazing that B-52 is basically older than almost everyone in the USAF now.
I think you can change that statement, leaving out the "almost." The first ones were made 70 years ago. I don't think we have any servicemen that old.
It's one of few aircraft where if it happened, the grandfather, the father and the son flew the exact same bomber.
Keep up the good work! Not enough historians focus on the cold war
Perfect timing on this video
I grew up neear the Plattsburgh air force base which housed some of the Atlas ICBM launch sites and I'd love to hear more about this system in the future!!!
Well maybe the control bunker was but the missile silos we're spread around the Adirondack Mountains and a few were in the Green
Mountains in Vermont .
My dad signed up on 12-8-41 when the airforce was split with the army he went with the AF and was part of SAC always told the story about how he and some buddies painted on the tops of some of the hangers watch your a55 and kiss ours. the Soviets actually protested. The base commander laughed about it but they had to paint over it.
Yet another fantastic video 😎 Hi from Belfast Northern Ireland 😎
Interesting breakdown; thank you! Also I got a chuckle out of the bit with first strike on the bell button; well done.
Wow what a jerk! Nothing questionable about that…
"and generally questionable human being Charles Lindbergh" XD
I grew up in omaha ne, so SAC hq was not that far from me in Belleview. During the 70s and 80s Offutt afb had an open house and air show every summer.
Cool video. I would have thought this video would have been much earlier in the channel's existence. I never noticed it was never there.
Have you done a video on Albania and there Dictator and his over preparation and fears of Yugoslav invasion that never happened? Also maybe do a an episode on Yugoslavia and the animosity between them and USSR/Eastern Block, and maybe even Tito for his own episode because he was quite the character!
Tito Jackson of the Jackson Five? 😁
If you’re ever in Arizona, stop by our Titan ii missile base. I’d love to show another Cold War historian/enthusiast around :)
Where do you get off in presenting an accurate and informative video? Watching other channels on military avaition led me to think this is not allowed by UA-cam.
I remember when the Buffs stood down. I went out to the flight line and all but two of the Buffs were gone from the alert pad. I remember thinking that if I ever saw this, I would have about 20 minutes left to live.
This kinda makes me think of a book called Phule's Company, where a rich captain reforms a cruddy military unit with positive reinforcement. It's a funny book lol. Thank you for another interesting history lesson!
God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)
Thoughtful work and deserving of hitting the subscribe button. Sounds like you have an interesting list of topics to pursue that I look forward to viewing in future episodes.
LeMay was certainly a character of immense influence in setting US strategic policy and quite willing to pursue nuclear war if called upon. Another key character early on was J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who directed the scientific efforts of the Manhattan Project, who continued on as the scientific director of the AEC. You observantly pinpointed the conflict over whether civilian or military control of nuclear weapons would prevail as a central thread of this story.
The nature of that conflict is something you will undoubtedly touch on, with reasons typically given for it ranging from the Air Force's mistrust of Oppie due to his association with known Communists to claims that he actively worked to slow the development of new weapons. As you say, the truth gets gray and very murky.
Here you should look into the Project GABRIEL report, issued in 1949 to answer the question of how much nuclear yield can be expended on the USSR before it endangers Americans? This was obviously responsive to the Air Force's first strike war plans, which came under review after Joe-1, the first Soviet test, was detected in late summer 1949. The answer turned out to be about 60 megatons of fission yield.
The Air Force had a 200+ target list as far back as September 1945, most within the USSR with the remainder at its periphery. If addressed with Fat Man-sized weapons, all could be attacked in a first strike and keep the total yield well under 60 Mt. With the Soviet perfection of fission weapons, the Air Force in turn demanded thermonuclear weapons to replace the now-lost American nuclear monopoly by early acquisition of thermonuclear superiority.
Doing the math of substituting A-bombs with H-bombs on the target list showed that the use of such an arsenal by SAC, even if the Soviets collapsed and failed to attack in response, would lead to disastrous consequences for Americans. Why? Do the math. The first two US thermonuclear test shots were 10 and 15 megatons respectively. Sticking by the GABRIEL preliminary findings, which Oppie apparently did in light of his work right up until his clearance was suspended, suggested that the Air Force could go to war with maybe half a dozen such weapons. That's where first strike fizzled conceptually, although LeMay would resist acknowledging it by suppressing the reason with secrecy, was among those in Air Force leadership who worked to strip Oppie of his Q clearance one day before it would have expired in any case, and continued with his plans for the vast expansion of SAC.
What put the brakes on this conceptually flawed strategy, converting it and counterforce as well into what turned out to be an almost equally shaky deterrence? Testing in the atmosphere in 1958 rose to levels that crossed the 60 Mt threshold suggested by GABRIEL. Spring 1959 brought wheat from the upper Midwest that exceeded just-issued guidelines for radioactivity in foods even as testing halted due to international denunciation of its global imposition. A brief, but intense resumption of testing in 1961 and 1962 led to iodine-131 appearing in milk, as the total yield from testing those years exceeded the 60 Mt boundary several times over. Despite everything else going on between them, the US, UK, and USSR all agreed in 1963 to cease all atmospheric testing. It turned out that Oppenheimer and his colleagues had been correct, but LeMay managed to build a vast force whose capabilities included planetary environmental suicide by being among those who helped suppress the fact that this arsenal; was largely unusable in any rational sense.
There's considerably more to the Cold War story as your agenda of future topics indicates. You can find more on these matters, along with the important role of nuclear intelligence in shaping strategy, in my dissertation, a free download at hdl.handle.net/2142/90554
I think the general who starts the war in dr Strangelove is based on lamae
What was SAC? It was a state of mind, a way of life, follow the Tech Orders to the letter and no short cuts. If it wasn't in the book, you couldn't do it; the rest of the Air Force if it wasn't in the book it was fair game. To for give is divine, but not SAC policy. It was the fourth branch of the military, before the USAF.
I grew up in SAC as a dependent and later served in SAC.
I’ve always been fascinated by the people and organizations that are responsible for our nuclear deterrence but wasn’t cut out for it myself. The willingness to use nuclear weapons is exactly what prevented them from ever being used again. I don’t think many people realize the implications of that.
@@dongately2817 we knew very well and why standards we're so high.
Remember we talked about it on the play ground in the first grade...
The Air Force definitely needs to bring back SAC!
Imagine loving Cold War era US Air Force history so much that you name your kids Sac, Tac and Mac.
Then the grandson is named Jipoe.
No ADC?
Good basic overview
Can you do a feature episode about the Philippines under Ferdinand E. Marcos,Indonesia under Suharto as well as Chile under Augusto Pinochet
Back in those days Bozo the clown wore a radiation suit, Clara's milk was daily tested for Strontium90, and Howdy Doody had to be decontaminated periodically (he didn't fit the suit). You think I joke? How many clowns looking for radiation suits in Doom today? Millions?
So-yeah. I was there. So was Sparty, but no one else. All the rest are radioactive mutants now.
The worst was the time Captain Kangaroo was closed down, while the AEC examined Tom Terrific's funnel hat for a Soviet planted bug. They found one, too. That's why no second season of Tom Terrific. Sad, that. Mighty Manfred had a bid in for the Batman Movie, but lost it during the lockdown. Tom sought asylum from Xrushchev, but was denied. "You cartoon characters are too gay for Russia!" he was quoted as saying. "In Soviet Russia, no one is allowed to be happy OR gay. Is capital crime to be both*."
Proof positive that in Soviet Russia, you do not lampoon the government. The Government lampoons YOU!
*Bri Griner found that out this year (2022)!
Great episode. I didn't know that it would takes many days or weeks to use atomic bombs once the decision had been made, back in the late 1940's. Kind of changes the whole perspective on how the Cold War unfolded. Remember that even through the 50's and into the 60's the military and political leaders believed that nuclear war was winnable. We really didn't start regularly hearing about worldwide holocaust and nuclear winter until the late 60's or early 70's.
Jimmy Stewart would be proud of this one 👌😎
All that movie needed was a few Bedfords, right?
Wait? This movie in the same name from 1955? Jimmy Stewart team up again with June Allyson (Dick Powell wife) & director once again Anthony Mann (Raw Deal, T-Men, El Cid & Side Street)
Here's some trivia for you. Jimmy Stewart served as a B-24 pilot during the war with the USAAF ending the war as a full Colonel, then continued on with the USAF reserve, qualifying on the B47 and B52. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart#1941%E2%80%931947:_Military_service
@@timf2279 only a refernce to the film he made about strategic air command. I know Stewart himself wasn’t a huge fan of violence
Another great video! Thanks.
These videos are tip top content
Turkey had an important role during the cold war. most of the nuclear missiles in european flank of nato was lcoated in Turkey, including tactical nuclear bombs. After the cold war most of them were removed by the turkish state and NATO troops in Turkey but there are still 80 Tactical Nuclear Bombs in Incirlik Air base, one of the biggest nato air bases. Turkey was the only coutnry that had borders with Soviet Union, others had borders with soviet sattelite states unlike Turkey. also we were really close to soviet industrial areas. and if i remember correctly, according to NATO plans if the nuclear war breaks up between Soviet Union and NATO, Turkish army would start an offensive towards caucasia and azerbaijan while other nato members in europe waiting for the us army to coutnrt attack against soviets. so it would be the only nato country that prepares an offensive against red army while others were defending. and thanks to cold war, turkish army was HUGE. it is still 2nd biggest army in nato.
nowadays relations between turkey and us is not good, many turks have negative opinion about us thanks to us invasion of Iraq. but i hope relations will be fixed in the future.
We had 24/7 food on SAC bases, great food
Can you do an episode on the UK during Cold War?
I suppose lemay is the reason why the usaf has better food and housing compared to other branches?
9:52 LeMay "was responsible for introducing the strategy of firebombing Japanese cities."
No he was not...he was ordered to use firebombing on Japanese cities...and he was sent to the Marianas to relieve the guy before him who had refused to do so. The decision to firebomb Japan was made at the highest levels of the American government and military, and happened way way above LeMay's pay grade. What LeMay did was figure out how to make firebombing work, and then he had the ruthlessness to carry out the attacks. 💯✌
He was responsible for making the bombing more accurate by lowering the altitude that the bombers flew and weeding out those who wouldn't carry out their orders. The firebombing of German and Japanese cities were war crimes on a massive scale but the victors do not face consequences.
@@timf2279 Good point...the Japanese did go much further in militarizing their "civilian" population than anybody else, at least by the time the Allies were getting ready to invade in mid-1945. They had started inducting all unmarried males 15 to 60 and unmarried females 17 to 40, and really did plan to use millions of these Volunteer Fighting Corps folks to turn the Allied invasion into a bloodbath. It got to the point where the US had effectively determined that there were no targets in Japan that should be off limits because the distinction between civilian and military no longer existed in the Home Islands.
Everything larger than a tactical nuke is MAD!
To err is human, to forgive is not SAC policy.
Major Kong was the best.
What was the ability of the USSR to deliver a nuclear strike in 1950? Was their copy of the B 29 any good?
It Washington a carbón copy.
Most Informative & interesting Video allot thanks(The Cold War )channel ..It seems to me From Earliest Moment of Cold war (USA Selected Offensive Option air Strikes By Nuclear Bombes Bombarding & Much Progressive Bombers .While USSR imposed (obligated )to embodying Defensive Option Through interceptors Because USSR suffered from lack of Financial capability & Less Progressive technology -Scientific efforts & Strength
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I grew up a 70s USAAF-TAC brat. Dad always said two things: "Vote Republican, they take care of the military." And of course, "The AF doesn't care about TAC. Bombers and their families get all the REAL money."
Holloman AFB, NM was my home for seven years. Loved the great memories but, hindsight however is quite different. Our home was a drafty cinderblock duplex which also served as a busy brown roache metro stop. Minimal support resources: hospital staff, playground equipment, library, groceries and so much less.
Your explanation of the why...USA's Top WW2 War Crime Allstar...Gen Curtis LeMay!
Good to know who REALLY made my childhood difficult.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I grew up during the same time period on a SAC base in northern Michigan called Kincheloe AFB. The difference between your experience and mind lends credence to what you say. Even though the base was in BFE we had had every amenity you can think of...bowling alley, movie theater, gymn, etc. We also had lakes we could ride our bikes to to fish and swim in the summer. During the winter, the hill that led down to the lake would be used for skiing (it had a lift and lodge) and ice skating.
The men who fought create the USAF out of the srmy control all viewed air power as a strategic tool to destroy the enemies ability to wage war by destroying their infrastructure. Tactical support of ground forces was an after thought. Thus, TAC was the unwanted stepchild. The USAF primarily crested TAC so they could keep the army out of the fixed wing business and TACs primary mission up until around 1980 was still nuclear strike. That's why it's aircraft were so I'll suited for action in Vietnam.
This is really good - however the B-36 could be considered underpowered at full payload but the atomic bombs were far lighter than this at only 10,000 lbs - B-36 had plenty of power and range at that weight.
I wouldn't call LeMay a "genius". More like a madman.
LeMay also thought that the Kennedy's were weak for not adopting his first strike doctrine. He also proposed that we drop the bomb on an U.S. city, and then blame it on the Cubans and Soviets as a pretense to war. JFK just looked at the Joint Chiefs like they had just lost their minds. But you needed Hawks like LeMay to build a fighting force like SAC to operational levels, but they also comprised our biggest threat for actually going to nuclear war.
He never proposed that. He did however propose Operation NorthWoods along with the Joint Chiefs to JFK. JFK famously laughed it off.
Interesting.
Anyone remember Curtis Lemay's nickname was?
Bomb's away Lemay.
Bombs away lemay!
Is this the same narrator of the explorers podcast ?
So in Dr Strangelove, Gen J. Ripper is C. Lemay?
Just the cigar part...General Turgidson is the rest of LeMay
there is a strong contention that Gen. Tommy Power, who took over SAC after LeMay was promoted, is the real-life model in Dr. Strangelove and not Curt LeMay. Cigar notwithstanding.
@@iKvetch558 right right. I always hesitate...
@@TheColdWarTV Indeed...Tommy Power was LeMay's protégé, to a large extent...and his views were as if LeMay had been turned up to 11, as they say. 💯✌
@@TheColdWarTV Yes...Power was the quintessential Cold Warrior.
Great video! Can anyone recommend a good book about General LeMay's organizational changes ("change management" for an MBA term) at SAC? I'd love to know more. Thanks
He didn't change anything. He created SAC. It was built in his image, which is why it was so inflexible, unimaginative and sociopathic.
Big Fallout vibes
I worry for the future. But something this nice keeps me at ease.
I like trees as much as the next guy but in your ad read you said the Tunguska Blast was a "catastrophe" but nobody died except for the Bolshevik trees
Was? What it is now.
"was"
Will future videos include ADC and NORAD??
In the SIOP, China was getting it, even if they did nothing. Different times...
There is only so much you can cover in less than an hour 😂
nice video about capabilities - but the TITLE said war plan - which you never really covered. Minus a point for click baiting.
Can't wait to hear more about this moving into the 1950s and 1960s
Humble suggestion: would you mind explaininh why the US went from nuclear parity to nuclear supremacy? Cheers.
Why? Because Americans wanted to remain free, and thus wanted to be assured that communism cannot beat us.
Nice video. Maybe we can see a video on what the Russian Nuclear War plan was like.
Curt Lemay is one of my heroes. It's also of note that before WW2 he was thought of as the best navigator in the USAAC. He also revolutionized the way the air war in Europe was conducted concerning the use of bombers and their support. An American hero in all respects.
he was a huge bastard
I also idolize serial killers
@@howilearned2stopworrying508 Show me on the doll how the USA hurt you.
Imagine describing LeMay as a personal hero 🤦
Didnt LeMay advise JFK to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union?
1:05 , "the largest explosion ever recorded" i dont think it's even necessary to say that this is blatantly incorrect. You either misspoke and meant to further clarify the biggest recorded natural explosion caused by an air bursting meteorite but I can only assume you just dont put much effort in researching and fact checking your script . Either way 0/5 bad first impressions for your channel
Bombs Away Lemay!
As if you would know.
Where are people like Curtis LeMay today? Why did he have only 1 child and not 10? It would be interesting to measure and compare the IQs of today's US military leaders vs. the WW2 era leaders.
Unfortunately, LeMay had a hard time adapting to the changing nature of the Cold War. His thinking was good for the early phase, when there were only bombers for the nuclear deterrent mission, and only fission weapons available to arm them with. When it was still possible to "win" a nuclear war, and there would be no global holocaust to inevitably follow from nuclear winter and other effects, LeMay's understanding of how to turn SAC into an organization that would be an effective deterrent was spot on. However, once thermonuclear bombs became the norm, and ever increasing numbers of ICBMs and SLBMs were on hair trigger alert, LeMay's way of doing things led to operational plans that were verging on the ridiculous, and the American response to any nuclear attack was almost guaranteed to end much of human life as we know it on the planet. Just look at the SIOP that would have been followed if Arkhipov had not been there and the Soviets had launched their nuke torpedo...it included the expenditure of something like 3500 nukes on more than 2000 targets, or something approximately as equally insane. ✌
@@iKvetch558 You make a good point when you say "early phase" , a time when even the best of minds believed a war between the United States and the Soviet Union was Inevitable. Fortunately cooler heads would prevail and a policy of detente became "acceptable" by both sides.
@@iKvetch558 Thank God Vasiliy said Nyet!
Rings of Steel - The Nike Story
🙃
No idea the Air Force was basically tell our strategic bomber crews, your going to Moscow, but won't be able to return to base. Your on your own getting home. Think about Turkey.
Sounds like a scene from the movie "Fail Safe"
@@rnklv8281 Maybe more like Dr. Strangelove lol.
My Dad was a B-58 pilot and always told me that if he was really sent to his target, and got there, he very likely wouldn’t make it home. I asked why not, he refueled in the air! He said the tankers would have been easy targets. He seemed pretty stoics about it, so I asked if he didn’t want to get home to us, and he said No, that we wouldn’t survive even a near hit to the base, and that he didn’t want us to survive a nuclear war. He said that he didn’t want to survive a nuclear war. This sounds like a pretty harrowing talk between a father and his teenage daughter, but I was pretty smart and was already ferreting out answers on my own. I appreciate that he was always honest with me. He said the only good option was to not get into a war in the first place. That helped a lot with understanding, and being patient with, him being on alert so much, the ORIs, and generally being anxious every time I got home from school and his flight suit and flight boots were gone. Yeah, I checked every day. A good man, a hero in my eyes and I will always be proud of him.
🙂👍
Algorithm
Al Gore rhythm.
Rickover and the first nuke submarine.
#WeLoveDavid
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Curt LeMay unironically did nothing wrong.
Neither did Mr. Lindbergh.
Sure. Warmongers and fascist
How about the boomers and the nuclear submarines.
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