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View Full Version : Nuke option in N. Korea goes back to 1950



USNAviator
10-10-10, 06:12 PM
U.S. often weighed N Korea nuke option

By Charles J. Hanley and Randy Herschaft - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Oct 10, 2010 12:29:05 EDT
<form id="hidden"> <input id="headline" value="U.S. often weighed N Korea nuke option" type="hidden">
<input id="url" value="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/10/ap-us-often-weighed-N-Korea-nuke-option-101010/" type="hidden">NEW YORK — From the 1950s Pentagon to today's Obama administration, the United States has repeatedly pondered, planned and threatened use of nuclear weapons against North Korea, according to declassified and other U.S. government documents released in this 60th-anniversary year of the Korean War.
</form> Air Force bombers flew nuclear rehearsal runs over North Korea's capital during the war. The U.S. military services later vied for the lead role in any "atomic delivery" over North Korea. In the late 1960s, nuclear-armed U.S. warplanes stood by in South Korea on 15-minute alert to strike the north
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Just this past April, issuing a U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "all options are on the table" for dealing with Pyongyang — meaning U.S. nuclear strikes were not ruled out.

Regional U.S. commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in interviews published posthumously, said he had a plan at the time to drop 30 to 50 atom bombs across the northern neck of the Korean peninsula, to block further Chinese intervention.

Based on previously declassified documents, however, historians believe the U.S. came closest to unleashing its atomic arsenal against North Korea in April 1951, on the eve of an expected Chinese offensive.

With Truman's signoff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered A-bomb retaliation if large numbers of fresh Chinese troops entered the fight. In the end, the U.S. military repelled the Chinese push and the weapons were never used. But Pentagon planners retained the option.

In September and October 1951, Air Force B-29 bombers conducted simulated atomic-bombing runs against Pyongyang, dropping dummy weapons on the North Korean capital, according to a newly obtained Army planning document corroborating earlier disclosures.

By early 1953, the U.S., frustrated by stalled armistice talks, pondered launching a new offensive against the north Koreans and Chinese. The Pentagon's Air Staff recommended using A-bombs to achieve victory "in the shortest space of time," according to a Feb. 20, 1953, memo from the Air Force director of plans, Maj. Gen. Robert Lee.

Added a top-secret CIA Special Estimate, "The Communists would recognize the employment of these weapons as indicative of Western determination to carry the Korean war to a successful conclusion."
Then, in a series of memos in May, June and July 1953, Air Force generals reported progress in planning an "atomic offensive" to "destroy effective Communist military power in Korea" if the armistice talks broke down completely.

On July 27, 1953, an armistice was signed. Then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower would later credit the nuclear threat — conveyed through back channels to Beijing — for pressuring the Chinese into an agreement.
Even without nuclear weapons, three years of U.S. conventional bombing had devastated North Korea, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The nuclear planning didn't stop with the fighting. On Aug. 20, 1953, declassified documents show, the Strategic Air Command sent Air Force headquarters a plan for "an air atomic offensive against China, Manchuria and North Korea" if the communists resumed hostilities. "OpPlan 8-53" called for use of "large numbers of atomic weapons."

hbharrison
10-10-10, 09:17 PM
I would say that with the presents of Obamu it an't gona happen but on the other hand if it did just one time we let one go on some one who really needed it the rest of these little turds would thing twice about shooting off the mouth so much. Like I said not going to happen and that is a good thing in a way.