Drop Shot: The Star Sprangled Side of Cold War

YEREVAN STATE LIIVERSITY AFTER BRUSOV DROP SHOT The Star-Spangled Side of Cold War By Narek Markarian Supervisor E. Danielyan Area Studies Chair IV year group 2 Yerevan 2004 I don t know what weapons will be used during World War III, but I m sure that during World War IV only sticks and stones will be used. Albert Einstein IChurchill s Fulton speech in August 16, 1945 and in fact ended only when the USSR collapsed.The Cold War was a period of tense relationship between the two countries and not once the world stood at the brink of World War III. However the American interpretation of history turns the Soviet Union into an evil aggressor, meanwhile the United States did their best to defense their country and democracy around the world.

Ask any American about the Cold War and the only serious event he will name will be the Cuban Crisis.Yes, during the Cuban Crisis, the war indeed was very, very close. This event received the broadest publicity around the world and American political technologists keep its echo alive up till today.

Every American knows the story of legendary president John Kennedy who saved the world from a nuclear war bravely fighting against an evil aggressor Nikita Khrushchev. They know this story because it is everywhere in American culture starting from history books, movies and ending with comic books and cheap TV shows.This, by far, is not the complete story and, better say, it is deliberately one side of it And this is one of the biggest historical injustices of the XXth century.

Throughout the Cold War and even after it the US Government avoided any publications revealing the second part of the story. The second part in which there was a mighty country, who suffered least after World War II, and another very vulnerable and almost exhausted country who suffered most. And starting from 1946 it was United States who starting drawing the plan of a nuclear war against the Soviet Union. A plan which would destroy all big cities of the USSR, millions of innocent people and lead the whole world to an irretrievable ecological disaster. A plan that was an act of cruelest ungratefulness to the country that protected the world from Nazi invaders paying the bitterest price for it. A plan that had the cynical name Dropshot.

HISTORICAL PREFACE After the WW II the United States was the only country possessing excess resources.

Of course both the USSR and the USA were on the same side, however the contributions and the sacrifices they made were quite different. The USSR lost estimated 20 000 000 soldiers and as to the United States they lost 400 000. As an American historian J. Gaddis noticed in his book Russia, the Soviet Union and the United States.An Interpretive History the relation of lost soldiers was 1 to 50. Despite all these loses WW II showed the great military potential that the Soviet Union had. After the heroic victories of Red Army in Stalingrad and Kursk in 1943 the turning point of WW II, a package of recommendations was introduced to US Secretary of State. It stated that after Japan will be defeated there will remain only two superpowers the USA and the USSR. It advised to concentrate all the military powers of the USA against the Soviet Union. Along with this, the terms of both countries were better than ever. The US offered leasing programs to the USSR and Stalin himself said the Soviet people are interested in them. However none of these programs was fulfilled.

In October 1945 the Headquarter Commander s Committee recommended to accelerate nuclear investigations, to keep them top secret from any other country and the UN. The next step was US Air Force Commander General Arnold s report in November 1945 which said that the USA should show the potential aggressor, that in case of attack on USA a devastating nuclear attack will follow.

However this report was only the beginning.

The Headquarter Commander s Committee secret report, which did not exclude the possibility of attacking the USSR first, was a logical continuation.By the end of 1945 the USA had 196 atomic bombs, to destroy 20 most important cities of USSR. The cities were chosen on following criteria 1 productive capacity, mostly of aircrafts and other weapon 2 presence of administrative and governmental institutions 3 presence of science- research institutions.

Moscow, Gorky, Kuybishev, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Saratov, Kazan, Leningrad, Baku, Tashkent, Chelyabinsk, Nizhniy Tagil, Magnitigorsk, Perm, Tbilisi, Novokuznetsk, Grozny, Irkutsk and Yaroslavl were in that list. 13 000 000 people would die in the result of such attack, not to mention the ecological catastrophe that would follow.On February 22nd 1946 US Ambassador in the USSR Kennan sent an 8000 word long telegram which is considered to be the corner stone in estimation of USSR. In it he described Soviet Union as a political force which is fanatical sure that there can not be no long term modus vivendi with the USA. He assured that this should be the main point Washington should consider in building any relationship with Moscow.

This forced the officials of Truman cabinet to start something of a competition on who will create a better punishment for the USSR. On September 24th, 1946 Truman s special assistant Clifford presented a special report American Policy Towards Soviet Union. Here are some fragments from it. Adepts of force understand nothing but force We must point to Soviet Union that that we possess enough power not only for defense, but for a quick smash of Soviet Union during war. Soviet Union is not very much vulnerable because its resources are dispersed, however it is vulnerable to a nuclear attack, bacteriological attack and distant bombardment the USA must be ready for atomic and bacteriological war War against the USSR will be total in a much more severe meaning of the word that any other war had ever been, that is why a constant development of attack and defense weapons is necessary Inside the USA any penetration of communism must be liquidated.

Let me remind that we are talking about a democratic country that supposedly has freedom of speech and freedom of choice.

In November 7th 1947, Kennan presented Resume of International Climate in which he stated The risk of war is increasingKremlin does not wish and does not expect a war. The authors of the previous report could be very satisfied with that as the war could be also unexpected.

THE USA PREPARES FOR WAR On August 18th, 1948 National Security Council NSC certified 201 directive which said Because of the political war the Government is obliged to design more definite and militant objectives for Russia.Two main objectives were to minimize the power of the USSR and Moscow s influence and make drastic changes in the foreign policy of Moscow.

As to the moral aspect the NSC 201 directive had the following we, well-groundedly, should not feel any guilt, destroying concepts, which are not compatible with peace and stability in the world This is how socialism is called and changing them with concept of international partnershipAs a Government, we are not responsible for interior conditions of Russia.What was even more interesting about that directive is how the USA celebrated victory before the war began.

We must issue that it will be unprofitable or practically impossible to occupy the entire territory of Soviet Union, and setting our own military administration there.This is impossible as because of the vast territory and to the number of population We shouldn t wish to impose our will on Soviet territory the way we intended to do in Germany and Japan. We must understand that the ultimate regulation must be a political one. The worst result that the USA expected could be the perseverance of Soviet authority in the country.

For that case Americans formulated following demands a Surrender of all weapons in order to have a militarily helpless state in the end b To create a huge economical dependence from outer world c Set of pro-American propaganda in the USSR All conditions must be stiff and deliberately humiliating for the communist regime.They may remind the Brest-Lithuanian peace declaration of 1918 Seems like the USA of 1948 took the policy of German aggressors of WW I period which is to be studied on this term. However this was the least favorable epilogue that the USA expected.

A much more expected epilogue was studied in detail.Here s what NSC 201 directive said about it What goals we should pursue with any non-communist Government that might appear on part or on entire territory of USSR after the war Independently, of any ideological basis of such non-communist regime, and however readily it will praise democracy and liberalism we must reach the following goals. a Surrender of all weapons in order to have a militarily helpless state in the end b To create a huge economical dependence from outer world c The new country should not have any serious impact on ethnical minorities. d Avoid a set of anything similar to iron curtain.

In case such regime would be hostile towards communist and friendly towards us, we must take care that the conditions should not be humiliating.Many points in that plan resembled Barbarossa plan by Adolph Hitler.

In fact it is believed that the idea of concentration camps was adopted by Hitler from the USA. He admired the Indian concentration camps created in Wild West and the methods US forces used, genocide, hunger and imposing unequal battles. On who might be the Government of the new country the USA was not quite certain. But still they were certain that probably it would be some group belonging to immigrants that escaped from the country during the revolution.On this matter it is my personal opinion that it would likely be the remainings of Vlasov army It is also a common fact that the Vlasov army fought on the Nazi side, against the USSR, that is to say against their own compatriots It was constantly sponsored by the US Government up until the 80 s. Followers of general Vlasov lived in France and were sponsored to start a propaganda war on the territory of the country.

However all their efforts were in vain and probably the only serious result that such cooperation had was waste of millions of dollars from the US security budget.

To certify NSC directive 201 it took work of the elite of US Military Forces. After slight editing of the directive President Harry Truman finally certified the edited version of the plan which was under number 204. The final version did not differ greatly from its predecessor.Here is one of the most cynical contradictions from it. This statement was in the beginning of the plan. The most serious danger for the United States in the foreseeable future are hostile intentions, Huge power of the USSR and its nature.

Here is another statement from the final part of the directive. most thorough calculations indicate that the Soviet Union Government presently plan any deliberate military actions against the USA. CHARIOTEER AND FLEETWOOD Way back in 1945, when Dwight Eisenhower was the President, a military attack plan named Totality was drafted.In 1948 the Council of Headquarter Commanders of the United States created another plan named Charioteer.

It said the attack should start with nuclear bomb raid against governmental, political and administrative centers, industrial cities and selected oil refinery factories from bases in western hemisphere in England.In the first phase of war, which would be 30 days long, 133 atomic bombs would be dropped on 70Soviet cities, 8 of them would be dropped on Moscow, devastating more than 40 square miles of the city, 7 bombs would be dropped on Leningrad.

In the course of were 200 more nuclear bombs and 250 tones of ordinary bombs should be dropped on Soviet territory. Charioteer was replaced by another plan on September 1st, 1948 this one was called Fleetwood.Fleetwood admitted that in case of war it was very likely that the USSR will be able to occupy Europe that is why it took precautions and drafted an attack plan from the Mediterranean Sea. However it was presumed that while the Red Army will be occupying Europe, the bombarding of Soviet territory will undermine Soviet s key power element political sovereignty.

Fleetwood called the following features basis of the USSR s power 1 Inborn courage, endurance and patriotism of population 2 Abstemious and accurate mechanism of Kremlin s control 3 Ideological attractiveness of theoretical communism 4 Proved ability of Soviet regime of mobilizing patriotism in support of communism 5 Ability of government and population to lead war in disorganized conditions, as seen on the examples of WWI and WW II After all it was assumed that yet nuclear bombs are much stronger than that. On December 21st, 1948 the Commander-in-chief of US Air forces named the exact date of the war April, 1st, 1949. In the beginning of 1949 a special committee under the control of General Lieutenant H. Harmon, consisting of top Army, Navy and Air Forces officials was created.

It carefully examined all possible consequences for the USSR after the war. The industry of the country would be lowered for estimated 30-40. As to the people, the American militarists calculated 2 700 000 deaths after the nuclear attack, depending on the effectiveness of Soviet anti-aircraft defense.

Total number of those survived was supposed to be around 28 000 000. Still, when April of 1949 came the USA didn t attack.There have been three reasons why it didn t happen. First and the most essential reason was that the country didn t have enough resources to complete the task, see further for details second reason was that the country took a much more reasonable policy and started to organize NATO. Its mission was to create military bases around the borders of socialist countries.

New military bases were built and the country spent great economic resources for that purpose.The third reason was that many military chiefs didn t want any plans against the USSR to be drafted and worked on, not because they such pacifist, but because they were very much sure that having nuclear weapon, Soviet Union could be no rival.

US Air Forces commander in Europe General Limmey spoke about the USSR with mockery saying that they possess enough power to clear up huge areas leaving only traces of humanity. However such position was soon to be rocked. On September, 1949 American bomber B-29 took sample of air in the Northern part of the Pacific Ocean, which turned out to be highly radioactive.The research gave the most horrible result an atomic bomb was tested on the territory of Soviet Union. 22 days after that, on September 23rd, 1949 Soviet information agency declared the following The Soviet Union mastered the secret of atomic weapon already in 1947It should be noted that the Soviet Government despite of possessing atomic weapon, keeps and intends to keep its position of absolute prohibition of atomic weapon.

DROP SHOT Since 1949 the US military administration had been working on a new plan. Taking into consideration all merits and demerits of previous alternative plans, Drop Shot was to be the most perfect of them. In order to keep secret it deliberately had a meaningless name. The seriousness of this plan compared to the previous ones, is obvious just looking at the date of the attack January, 1st 1957. In previous cases the interval was just 1 or 2 years, in this case however they took 8 years to prepare.

This time all NATO countries were to stand on the American side. Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, India and Pakistan were to remain neutral, but would join the allies in case of attack or serious threat.

Of course most of these countries had no idea they were in the list created by the US. The plan perused the same political goals that the previous ones did. This time the military goals were even more optimistic.More than 300 nuclear bombs were to be dropped, more than 250 tons of ordinary bombs and 85. The planned paid even more attention to suppress the mighty anti-aircraft system of the Soviet Union. The second stage should be conducted by air forces and troops should be prepared for the attack. 164 NATO divisions, 69 of which were American were to attack the USSR. In the third stage 114 NATO divisions attack from the West, and 50 divisions from the South near Black Sea, these divisions were to eliminate Soviet Army in central Europe.

The attacking army would make 250 divisions in total i.e. 6 250 000 soldiers only in troops. 20 000 000 million people counting aviation, navy, anti-aircraft defense and everything else. During the fourth and final stage of Drop Shot 38 divisions should remain in the USSR as occupation army. The country was divided into 4 occupation zones or responsibility districts as Americans called it Western USSR, Caucasus- Ukraine Ural, West Siberia, Turkistan East Siberia, Zabaikalye and Primorye.

Among the features that distinguish this plan from its predecessors was the fact that this time it was decided to use the so-called dissidents non-conformists or people who under no circumstances accepted Soviet authority inside the country itself.

This time they valued the possible outcall that psychological attack could have inside the country. It was planned to grant material support to dissidents and assure them that liberation is very close. Indeed very curious thing again.This last idea was based on the researches concerning the collapse of Hitler s campaign in Soviet Union. American theoreticians came to the conclusion that Berlin of 1941 missed some political aspects, that could be quite useful during the war. As Professor Clausewitz said in his work About War way back in 1941 Russia is not a kind of country that can be conquered, or occupiedSuch country can be defeated only with interior weakness and confrontations.

WHY THE WAR DID NOT BREAK OUT Despite of the self-assurance of American military officials the chances that the country could win such war were really low. Many senators, scientists and politicians were quite sure about that. An American historian A. Brown tried to prove that the USA would surely lose the war in his book Drop Shot The American Plan of Nuclear War Against the USSR in 1957. The United States could not win the war in 1949-1950. Strategic aviation could not strike Russia with one irreparable strike.

The thing is that by the end of 1949 the country had 840 strategic bombers in line, 1350 in reserve and 300 nuclear bombs.

Only from the bases on British Isles aircrafts could actually reach Soviet territory. The thing is that even most optimistic calculations showed that Soviet Air Forces were able to destroy British bases in minimum of 2 months.For the actions in Black Sea region USA needed 233 B-29 and B-50 bombers. 32 had to carry the bomb while others should suppress the anti-aircraft defense. The chances to carry out the operation were estimated 70 by Americans themselves The calculations of the Americans were always way too optimistic.

Many examples from WW II and even the latest campaigns in Iraq and Kosovo come to prove that Indeed the country, even with the help of NATO allies could not fulfill any attack plan on the USSR, in fact it would very likely lose WW III. Besides, more reasonable American researches proved that the USSR could occupy Western Europe in a very short period.American cities could not be defended in a proper way and Soviet aviation could give serious damages to the country and its industry.

At last there would definitely be a partisan war inside the USSR and WW II is a great example of Russia s skills in such war. EPILOGUE Thank God most parts of these plans remained only on paper.Still the United use continued the ideological and psychological war against the USSR. What I tried to prove in my work is that America was not a harmless lamb during the cold war and naturally its plans were way beyond ideological war. In the end the Soviet Union collapsed, to examine the reasons of the collapse would take thousands of pages of scientific works, but it is natural that the reason was not just the ineffectiveness of Soviet regime, as western analysts try to prove, it was the efforts of United States as well. It is my opinion that the attitude towards the country that saved civilization in the XXth century was more than unjust.

Even the great Winston Churchill exaggerated the Red threat.It is also my opinion that before shouting about the Red threat, canonizing President Kennedy and putting Joseph Stalin on the same shelf with Adolph Hitler America should clean up its own backyard.

Especially when similarities of their own policy with Hitler s regime are so numerous. BIBLIOGRAPHY N. Yakovlev CIA VS USSR J. Gaddis, Russia, the Soviet Union and the United states. An Interpretive History Containment.Documents on American Policy and Strategy 19945-1950 Peter Calvocaressi World Politics 1945-2000 A. Brown Drop Shot The American Plan of Nuclear War Against the USSR in 1957.