Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 17. Mars 2021 / Time Line March 17, 2021
Version 3.503/17/2021
Alerts, Crises, and DEFCONs
U.S. Shows of Force Became Routine During International Crises
Canadians Worried that U.S. Nuclear Armed Exercise Could Prompt Soviet Attack in 1959 Berlin Crisis
Part I: From the 1948 Berlin Crisis to the First DEFCON
Washington D.C., March 17, 2021 – During the 1950s and early 1960s, a remarkable number of crises
arose during which U.S. leaders made threats, authorized nuclear weapons for use, and put strategic forces
in a higher state of readiness, manifesting an almost reflexive reliance on displays of military force, according
to a National Security Archive study posted today of declassified records, many published for the first time,
on the use of alerts and the Defense Condition (DEFCON) system.
From Berlin in 1948 to Suez and Taiwan in the 1950s to Cuba in 1962, and Lebanon and Korea in the
1970s, the United States almost routinely put its armed forces, including the Strategic Air Command (SAC),
on alert, ostensibly to deter adversaries or to support diplomatic objectives. At times, the U.S. posture
struck a nerve among its allies. For example, State Department memos from 1959 report that Canadian
officials were growing anxious that nuclear-armed SAC overflights might trigger an East-West war.
Today’s posting, the first of two parts on the subject, features numerous documents that are being published
for the first time – mainly declassified official internal histories – and that cover a variety of important strategic
and procedural developments, including the creation of the DEFCON system in 1959. It also documents the
first use of the DEFCON system after the Paris Summit collapsed in May 1960 over the U-2 crisis.
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