DATE=10/29/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=U-S NUKES / CUBA
NUMBER=5-44653
BYLINE=ANDRE DE NESNERA
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// EDS: This is the second of a two-part series on a
recently released Pentagon report on the stationing of
American nuclear weapons overseas. The first report
(issued 10/28/99) dealt with an overview of the
document.
///
INTRO: An article in "The Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists" chronicles the stationing of U-S nuclear
weapons overseas and for the first time provides a
glimpse of U-S nuclear policy at the height of the
Cold War. V-O-A National Security Correspondent Andre
de Nesnera spoke with the authors of the report and
says they were surprised to learn that in the early
1960's, nuclear-capable weapons were stationed at a U-
S base in Cuba.
TEXT: The article is based on a recently declassified
Pentagon history dealing with the deployment of U-S
nuclear weapons overseas from 1945 to 1977.
The article says at the peak period - in the late
1960's and early 1970's - about 12,000 U-S nuclear
weapons were stationed overseas: 7,000 in NATO
countries, 2,000 in Pacific nations and about 3,000 on
board ships of various kinds. 27 countries and U-S
territories had American nuclear weapons on their soil
at one time or another: such countries as Canada, the
Philippines, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, South Korea and
Japan.
One of the co-authors of the article - weapons expert
William Arkin - says the Pentagon history reveals that
nuclear components were also stationed in Cuba in the
early 1960's.
/// ARKIN ACT ///
In the case of Cuba, in 1961, non-nuclear-
nuclear depth bombs - these are bombs that were
intended for anti-submarine warfare, they would
be dropped from an airplane into the ocean and
explode under water and destroy a submarine -
were stored in Guantanamo Bay.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Arkin says technically, the anti-submarine bombs
stationed at the U-S naval base in Guantanamo Bay were
not nuclear weapons as such because the nuclear
material - the plutonium and uranium core - was stored
in Florida.
/// SECOND ARKIN ACT ///
And during a crisis, an airplane would pick them
up from the Jacksonville area and fly them down
to Guantanamo Bay. And so that way, I guess, the
letter of the (Pentagon) history would be that
nuclear weapons were never stored in Cuba even
though in this very `nuclear' history, it says
that these nuclear components - these bombs
without the uranium and plutonium - were
deployed. And they were subject to the same
presidential authorizations and requirements for
presidential approval as were regular nuclear
bombs, because obviously, they were just as
sensitive.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Arkin says the two dozen or so depth bombs were
stationed in Cuba from December 1961 to about
September 1963. He says they were on the island
during the October 1962 missile crisis when the United
States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of war
over Moscow's stationing of nuclear missiles on Cuba.
Mr. Arkin says the Pentagon history does not
indicate whether President John F. Kennedy or his
secretary of Defense - Robert McNamara - knew the
weapons were stored in Cuba.
Ted Sorensen was a senior adviser to President
Kennedy.
/// SORENSEN ACT ///
I do not know anything about it, but frankly I
wasn't all that surprised or shocked (to read
about it). In Cuba, the depth charges were in
Guantanamo Bay, an American base on the island
of Cuba. So I am not certain that there is
anything quite so surprising. It is quite
different to have those weapons under your own
control, on your own base - which in effect is
the next thing to being American territory - and
actually stationing them in another country
where you do not have that kind of base or legal
rights of control.
/// END ACT ///
At the present time, the United States has between 6
and 8,000 nuclear weapons stationed overseas - all of
them NATO countries. They are Britain, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Italy and Turkey.
(Signed)
NEB/ADEN/KL
29-Oct-1999 12:49 PM EDT (29-Oct-1999 1649 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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