In Their Ruin Part 8(finale)
Excerpt from the August 20th, 1968 broadcast of KMOX-AM's morning news program:
“Good morning, and here are the day's headlines for Tuesday, August 20th: United
Press International is reporting that a brigade of Soviet tanks is attempting to cross
the Czech border...President Johnson is scheduled to hold a press conference at the
White House this afternoon to outline U.S. plans for responding to the Soviets' threat
to attack West Germany...A seventeen-year-old Afro-American boy was arrested and
charged with assaulting a police officer late last night in Ferguson....The Dow Jones
opened today at 110 points below yesterday's closing figure as the repercussions of
the crisis in eastern Europe continue to be felt in the world economy....In sports, the
Cardinals will be going for their fifth straight win tonight when they face the Phillies in
Philadelphia. The Cards, who finally reopened Busch Stadium three days ago after a
previously scheduled August 10th reopening had to be postponed due to rain, are just
two games out of first place in the National League standings...”
Morning edition of the New York Daily News that same day:
EXTRA-- NATO, Soviet Troops Fighting Along Czech Border; U.S. Embassy
Confirms Prague Has Been Bombed
Excerpt from a CBS News special bulletin broadcast that afternoon:
“The White House press secretary's office has just announced that the presidential
press conference originally scheduled for 2:15 this afternoon has been postponed to
2:30 to allow President Johnson additional time for debriefing on the armed conflict
which has broken out between NATO and Soviet forces along the Czechoslovakian
border this morning....”
Opening remarks from President Johnson's press conference:
“My fellow Americans, today our country faces the gravest national security problem
it has confronted since the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviet Union has wantonly and
without provocation attacked Czechoslovakia and in so doing has endangered our
interersts and allies in Europe and posed an intolerable threat to our security here
at home. Therefore, after thorough consultations with our partners in NATO as well
as with my own closest advisors, I have directed U.S. military personnel in Europe
to oppose the Soviet invasion by all means at their disposal and given U.S. forces
in other parts of the world full discretionary power to engage Soviet ground, air, and
naval units in defense of the United States and her friends around the world....”
Excerpt from that evening's broadcast of The Huntley-Brinkley Report:
“Tonight the United States and her NATO allies are at war with the Soviet Union as
American and British ground troops aid the Czechs in resisting an attempted Soviet
invasion of Czechoslovakia and NATO naval forces confront the Soviets in the Baltic.
Details regarding the fighting in Europe are still sketchy at this hour; however, we can
confirm that both NATO and Soviet tank forces have sustained heavy casualties and
at least one Soviet warship has been sunk...”
Morning edition, Los Angeles Times, August 21st, 1968:
U.S., U.S.S.R. AT WAR
Heavy Ground And Air Fighting Along Czech, Polish Frontiers
U.S. Military Forces On Full Alert Worldwide
Excerpt from the broadcast of KMOX-AM's morning news program that same day:
“The Defense Department has confirmed that U.S., British, and West German troops
have crossed the Polish border...The mother of a 17-year-old Afro-American boy who
was arrested on Monday on charges of assaulting a Ferguson policeman is charging
that the boy was framed due to racial bias on the part of the arresting officers....White
House spokesman have announced President Johnson will be flying to Chicago next
week to address the Democratic National Convention...The Cardinals will be looking to
pull into a tie for first place in the National League standings when they wrap up their
road series with the Phillies tonight....The Dow Jones is opening below average for the
second straight day....”
Excerpt of a radio broadcast made that same afternoon by a group known as the Polish Liberation
Army:
“To the Communist tyrants who have oppressed our country for far too long we say:
Your time has come to an end. To our enslaved fellow countrymen we say: cast off
your chains and join us in the struggle to free Poland. To the American, British, and
West German soldiers now fighting the Soviets on Polish soil we say: our cause needs
and welcomes any assistance you can give...”
Evening edition of the Washington Post that same night:
BREZHNEV THREATENS U.S. WITH NUCLEAR ATTACK
Demands Complete Withdrawal Of NATO Forces From Czechoslovakia
Excerpt from the August 22nd, 1968 broadcast of The CBS Morning News:
“President Johnson has categorically rejected Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's
demand for the immediate and total pullout of U.S. and other NATO forces from
Czechoslovakia and Poland. In a statement released an hour ago the President
also said that Soviet nuclear attack against the United States or her allies in NATO
would be answered in kind with U.S. nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union and other
Warsaw Pact nations....”
Excerpt of a BBC Home Service news bulletin broadcast August 23rd, 1968:
“Prime Minister Wilson told the House of Commons that Great Britain will continue
to honor her commitments to her NATO allies despite Soviet threats to use nuclear
weapons against British cities. The prime minister also warned Moscow that if the
Soviets were to attack Britain with nuclear weapons such attack would provoke, in
his words, 'a swift and devastating reprisal' by Britain's own nuclear forces against
the Soviet Union...”
Opening commentary from the August 24th, 1968 broadcast of WCBS-AM's morning news show:
“This morning America is facing heightened racial tension at home and the danger
of a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union abroad. In cities all across the U.S.,
including here in New York, civil rights organizations have scheduled rallies today to
protest what many black Americans regard as the unjustified arrest of a Ferguson,
Missouri boy alleged to have assaulted a police officer; in Europe, the Soviet Union
is threatening to deploy nuclear weapons against NATO if the United States, Britain,
and West Germany do not immediately and completely withdraw their ground forces
from Poland and Czechoslovakia...”
Excerpt from a CBS News special bulletin aired that same afternoon:
“Responding to Soviet threats of nuclear attack against U.S. and allied forces in
Europe, President Johnson has granted Strategic Air Command full discretionary
authority to launch nuclear strikes on military, industrial, and command targets in
the Soviet Union upon confirmation of the use of nuclear bombs against U.S. and
NATO troops. We are still trying to verify an earlier report from UPI which claims
Soviet bombers have been intercepted off Puget Sound....”
Evening edition of the Washington Star that same night:
SOVIET BOMBER GROUP INTERCEPTED OFF WEST COAST
Most Of Enemy Flight Shot Down By NORAD Fighters; Seattle Believed
To Have Been Bombers' Intended Target
Morning edition, Boston Globe, August 25th, 1968:
EXTRA--Nuclear Bombs Detonated In Multiple Cities As U.S.-Soviet War
Escalates
Soviets Attack West Berlin, U.S. Responds With Invasion Of Cuba
Excerpt from an ABC News special bulletin broadcast that same morning:
“The nightmare of a large-scale nuclear war between the United States and the
Soviet Union has become a horrifying reality this morning as each country's bomber
and missile forces are being deployed against the other in a dramatic escalation of
the hostilities which have been going on since Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops
and aircraft attacked Czechoslovakia just five days ago. Here at home Los Angeles,
Portland, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Washington D.C. and San Diego have been
struck by Soviet nuclear missiles; in the Soviet Union U.S. nuclear bombs have wiped
out Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Vladivostok, and Murmansk; in western Europe,
Soviet missiles have destroyed the West German capital Bonn; and in eastern Europe,
NATO nuclear forces have attacked Warsaw, Dresden, Sofia, Krakow, Madgeburg, and
Karl-Marx-Stadt...”
Excerpt from President Johnson's address that afternoon:
“My fellow Americans, it is with great sadness and anger that I inform you of the grave
events that have occurred within the past few hours. The Soviet Union, in blatant and
contemptuous defiance not only of international law but of the most fundamental tenets
of human decency, has engaged in nuclear aggression against this country and killed
tens of millions of innocent people....Yet in spite of the horrific violence which has been
inflicted on us and our allies, we remain firm in opposing Soviet aggression...”
Excerpt from that evening's broadcast of The Huntley-Brinkley Report:
“New York City is struggling to pick up the pieces tonight after being devastated by
the shock wave of a nuclear explosion when a Soviet submarine-launched ballistic
missile prematurely detonated in open water somewhere over the Atlantic. Details of
the explosion are hard to verify, but we have been able to confirm that the number of
injuries and fatalities is well into the thousands....”
Morning edition, Kansas City Star, August 26th, 1968:
AIR FORCE CONFIRMS SOVIET MISSILE ATTACK ON OMAHA; DEATH TOLL
ESTIMATED TO BE IN THE THOUSANDS
FIERCE GROUND FIGHTING UNDERWAY NEAR HAVANA
Afternoon edition of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that same day:
MARINES CLASHING WITH CUBAN FORCES AT SANTIAGO DE CUBA
Evening edition of the Boston Herald Traveler that same night:
SOVIET ADVISORS CONFIRMED TO BE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE CUBAN TROOPS
AT SANTIAGO
Emergency Broadcast System announcement transmitted on the morning of August 27th, 1968:
“This is not a test. Air defense radars have detected Soviet nuclear missiles heading
towards the east coast of the United States...”
Soviet civil defense warning broadcast over Radio Moscow just minutes later:
“We urge all citizens to take over at once. Repeat, we urge all citizens to take cover
at once. American nuclear warheads are on their way....”
The End
Really interesting and enjoying seeing the mention of LBJ for obvious reasons. 
