"Diamond Jim" wrote in message
m...


[trim]

Thanks a lot for the reply. Did the post-strike bases on the periphery
of the Soviet Union and China include bases in South Korea, Taiwan and
Japan?

That's still rather "sensitive" information. I flew the B-47 and the
B-52 as well as the B-58. Post strike bases were planned all around the
USSR and China. That includes Europe, North Africa, the Mid-East and
Asia. Some bases were planned to have fuel so the bombers could re-deploy
back to North America. Many weren't "bases", just runways and I'm not
sure the host countries even knew they were in our plans,


While it may be "sensitive" information today, I seriously doubt that it
is classified in any way. (The general knowledge, not the specific
details.)

As for the host countries knowledge at the time?????

The fact that the US had nuke weapons, in such places as Greenland, Tiwan,
South Korea, Japan, (places in mainland Japan, plus Okinawa, Chiba Jima,
Iwo Jima) and a lot of other places around the world, has been know for a
number of years. That the host country didn't know about it would argue
that they didn't know about plans to use their runways as recovery bases
either.

The fact that the US had weapons at these places when the host country
didn't know about it, isn't talked about because of its "sensitive"
nature, but the general knowledge isn't classified while the specific
details may still be.

Japan? Japan has a rabid anti-nuke crowd.

The US had dual-key nukes in a number of countries, but I had never heard of
any in Japan. There was always a bit of a farce about these - 1 US MP and 2
host country ones watching each plane.

The landing sites didn't require pre-approval from the host nation. Japan's
anti nuke policy wouldn't apply to a plane that had jettisoned the offending
devices. :-)

During and after a strategic nuclear war diplomatic letters of protest don't
rank very high.

One of the more off-the wall plans I remember reading about involved the
embassy marines sizing control of the airport and fuel trucks to refuel
outbound bombers. This was in Iceland(?)