Nixon Considered Nukes in Viet War

[NVMojo]

end an unpopular war that killed tens of thousands of U.S. troops, considered using nuclear weapons against the North Vietnamese, recently declassified documents show.

By mid-1969, Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger had settled on a strategy using international diplomacy with threats of force against the communists ruling the north in an attempt to get them to buckle, according to an analysis of the papers by the National Security Archive. The private research group is headquartered at George Washington University.

Kissinger and his staff began developing contingency military plans under the code name of "Duck Hook." He also created a committee within the National Security Council to evaluate secret plans prepared by Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington and military planners in Saigon.

A pair of declassified documents raised the question of nuclear weapons use in connection with the military operation against the north, which was fighting to reunite with the democratic south, according to the archive.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-wh/2006/jul/31/073102580.html

[Monkeyman]

1. yep

[damntexdem]

2. We all knew that at the time.

It was one of those balloons that got floated, and didn't quite make it.

[Sretto]

3. YEp

War's over, Nixon is dead...nothing to see here, move along...

[Zensea]

4. I guess this is latest breaking news in a sense ....

but I could have sworn I read this awhile back from another source.
Maybe it's just that I think I did since I am not in the slightest bit surprised that Kissinger would think this way.

Just the same good to see it being published today.

[onehandle]

5. He should have used them. Maybe we would have Won a war in our lifetime.

Clinton made progress in Yugoslavia. Carter made some peace in the middle-east. Not exactly winning wars, but not Hellholes like Republicans have given us.

Reagan knocked over a little Caribbean island. whee.

(on edit, yes Johnson and Vietnam, yes I know)

[ShockediSay]

6. & Golda Meir threatened Kissinger in the ME War reportedly

w/ going nuclear by activating Israel's nuclear capable missiles

the result was a rush by the US to arm Israel w/ conventional weapons when she
was losing; as a result, Israel won

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/index.htm

I swear, w/ so many itchy fingers on so many nuke triggers

I've just had to accept we're living on borrowed time


God help us all

[Monkeyman]

7. You have no idea how close we were.

USSR had Airborne troops in the air. We had Sac up a ready to drop. Only thing that stop it was the picture shown the pull back

[EVDebs]

8. Sy Hersh's Price of Power called this the 'madman' theory

If my memory hasn't failed me. It was always a bluff, but conventional bombing was used as in the Christmas Bombing to get the north back to the Paris peace talks. For what it's worth.

[Kailassa]

9. No, it was not a bluff. Monkeyman is correct. n/t