Fascinating tale Tim, especially as we now know the Cuban Missile Crisis just a couple of years later. Agreed it would have been better if the documents had been released in a more timely fashion.
I'm curious as to how the it transpired from there: did the Americans board the Soviet trawler? If so, what was the reaction? (Clearly not the nuclear conflagration feared by Canada.) But if not, was it due the GoC intervention? And you note Diefenbaker, but what was the stance of then-POTUS Eisenhower?
Hi Rich, thanks very much for this note. First off, I over-edited and cut out my paragraph about the boarding! The Americans boarded, unarmed if I recall, found only fishing equipment and nothing nefarious. There is quite a bit that comes after this, however, including US and TASS press releases. Ultimately, I think the Americans concluded that the Soviets knew they were responsible for the breaks — but it is still a bit murky to gauge Soviet intent. I haven’t done much digging on the American side, but this incident does come in discussion of Berlin contingency planning. The Americans believed that “the decisiveness of US action” would contribute to Soviet calculations in a showdown over Berlin. As always, there’s a lot here… and I hope there might be others who pick up some of the threads!
Fascinating tale Tim, especially as we now know the Cuban Missile Crisis just a couple of years later. Agreed it would have been better if the documents had been released in a more timely fashion.
I'm curious as to how the it transpired from there: did the Americans board the Soviet trawler? If so, what was the reaction? (Clearly not the nuclear conflagration feared by Canada.) But if not, was it due the GoC intervention? And you note Diefenbaker, but what was the stance of then-POTUS Eisenhower?
Keep up the great work!
Hi Rich, thanks very much for this note. First off, I over-edited and cut out my paragraph about the boarding! The Americans boarded, unarmed if I recall, found only fishing equipment and nothing nefarious. There is quite a bit that comes after this, however, including US and TASS press releases. Ultimately, I think the Americans concluded that the Soviets knew they were responsible for the breaks — but it is still a bit murky to gauge Soviet intent. I haven’t done much digging on the American side, but this incident does come in discussion of Berlin contingency planning. The Americans believed that “the decisiveness of US action” would contribute to Soviet calculations in a showdown over Berlin. As always, there’s a lot here… and I hope there might be others who pick up some of the threads!