Could Soviet Nuclear Weapons Have Been Smuggled Into the USA Via Diplomatic Bags?

Nebogipfel

Monthly Donor
It wasn't so much planning as accepting. Makes you wonder what was in some American diplomatic pouches.

Now I wonder in how many embassies (not just of the Russians...) we have (dismantled ?) nukes stored away in some back room. Now add a turbulent political transition (e.g. SU -> Russia) and they might even forget about the bomb...

And getting them out of a country is as risky as getting them in ...
 
Well, "decapitate"; at least one of the cabinet officials will most likely be out of town, and SAC HQ is at Offutt in South Dakota...

Nebraska, south of Omaha.

During my time at Offutt, I was told by more than one person that the reason so many fail safes and executive branch authorization were built into the nuclear weapons system in the 1960s was Kennedy's intense distrust of LeMay. The story goes that at one point during the Cuban Missile Crisis LeMay, then Air Force Chief of Staff, was heard to say that he didn't have to wait for JFK's approval before launching a nuclear strike. Other officers talked him down off the ledge, but Kennedy heard of the comment and vowed to change the system.

OTOH, there's now some revisionist history claiming that LeMay actually wanted more executive branch control of nuclear weapons during his early years as CINCSAC. So who knows?
 
Worst case the Embassy is expelled and the country is left with egg on its face

Concealing a nuclear device in another country's capital is going to have more serious consequences than just "egg on face". If the USSR was caught doing it to the US in a way that the US government couldn't hush up, public opinion would probably have forced us to suspend grain sales, reinforce our forces in western Europe, abrogate arms treaties, and generally make it very clear how upset we were. This is as serious a provocation as I can think of that doesn't involve actually shooting at people.
 
Concealing a nuclear device in another country's capital is going to have more serious consequences than just "egg on face". If the USSR was caught doing it to the US in a way that the US government couldn't hush up, public opinion would probably have forced us to suspend grain sales, reinforce our forces in western Europe, abrogate arms treaties, and generally make it very clear how upset we were. This is as serious a provocation as I can think of that doesn't involve actually shooting at people.

If you thought the Cuban Missile Crises was bad it would have nothing on this, and if it's a country like North Korea thats doing the smuggling.....
 
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