Back Operation Giant Lance German Operatie Giant Lance Dutch Гигантское копьё (операция) Russian Operacija Giant Lance SH

Operation Giant Lance

Operation "Giant Lance"
Part of the Cold War
Date10–30 October1969
Location
Over Arctic Ocean
Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
 United States  Soviet Union
 North Vietnam
Commanders and leaders
United States Richard Nixon Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev

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.[1] 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 18 B-52s, flying in sorties of 6 bombers at a time, of the 92nd Strategic Aerospace Wing loaded with nuclear weapons to fly over northern Alaska in the direction of the Soviet Union. The squadron took off on 27 October and flew towards the Soviet Union.[2][3] Actions were designed to be detectable by the Soviets.[4] Nixon cancelled the operation on October 30.[1]

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.[5][6][7] In the first explanation, the Readiness Test was part of Nixon's madman theory,[4] a concept based on game theory,[1] and its details remained unknown to the public until Freedom of Information Act requests in the 2000s revealed documents about the operation.[8] 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.[5][7][9][10][11] Researchers have also called the second interpretation logically the most likely one.[12]

  1. ^ a b c Suri, Jeremi (25 February 2008). "The Nukes of October: Richard Nixon's Secret Plan to Bring Peace to Vietnam". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  2. ^ Sagan, Scott; Suri, Jeremi (2003). "The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling, and Safety in October 1969". International Security. 27 (4): 150–183. doi:10.1162/016228803321951126. JSTOR 4137607. S2CID 57564244.
  3. ^ Burr, William; Kimball, Jeffrey (2003). "Nixon's Nuclear Ploy". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 59 (1): 28–73. doi:10.2968/059001011 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  4. ^ a b Jesse Ventura (4 April 2011). 63 Documents The Government Doesn't Want You To Read. Skyhorse Publishing, 2011. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-61608-226-0.
  5. ^ a b "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXIV, National Security Policy, 1969–1972: 59. Editorial Note". United States Department of State. 2011. Archived from the original on 17 December 2024.
  6. ^ "The Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 14 January 2025. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  7. ^ a b Aftergood, Steven (25 October 2011). "Purpose of 1969 Nuclear Alert Remains a Mystery". Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024.
  8. ^ Burr, William; Kimball, Jeffry (23 December 2002). "Nixon's Nuclear Ploy: The Vietnam Negotiations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test". The National Security Archive.
  9. ^ "MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT: The Possibility of a Soviet Strike Against Chinese Nuclear Facilities" (PDF). The George Washington University. United States Department of State. 10 September 1969. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2024.
  10. ^ "63. Memorandum of Conversation". United States Department of State. 18 August 1969. Archived from the original on 4 November 2024.
  11. ^ O'Neill, Mark (12 May 2010). "Nixon intervention saved China from Soviet nuclear attack". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015.
  12. ^ Sagan, Scott D.; Suri, Jeremi (2003). "The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling, and Safety in October 1969". International Security. 27 (4): 156–158. doi:10.1162/016228803321951126. ISSN 0162-2889. JSTOR 4137607.

Operation Giant Lance

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