Thanks for that, Panda. Yes, you're absolutely on the money, as always. The other major event was the military exercise Able Archer 83, which the Soviets mistook for the prelude to a US pre-emptive strike. Fun times.
Exceptional piece. My next door neighbor in Alexandria, VA was a Navy LTCDR in Public Affairs stationed on BB-62 at the time. David's narrative tracks with what the neighbor told me when he returned from that deployment. However, nothing of this nature ever happens in a vacuum. To get a complete picture of what was going on at the time, one needs to be aware of the environment in the States. For example, the fallout from a sequence of events listed below had everyone behaving like they were over caffinated:
1. Fallout from the Iranian hostage release as those personnel returned to duty -- 20 Jan 81
2. The attempted assassination of the President which left him wounded -- 30 Mar 81
3. Near accidental launch of a Soviet retaliatory missile strike -- 26 Sept 83
4. KA 007 shootdown -- 1 Oct 83
5. Assassination attempt against president of South Korea by NK Peoples Army officers in Rangoon --
9 Oct 83 (21 dead 46 wounded including many public officials)
5. U.S. Marine Barracks, Beirut, Lebanon -- 23 Oct 83
6. US invades Grenada -- 25 Oct 83
7. US deploys cruise missiles to UK in response to deployment of Soviet SRBMs -- 14 Nov 83
As you can see Beirut was center stage only for those that were there. In fact, 1983 , it has been argued, was the most dangerous year of the Cold War.
Thanks for that, Panda. Yes, you're absolutely on the money, as always. The other major event was the military exercise Able Archer 83, which the Soviets mistook for the prelude to a US pre-emptive strike. Fun times.
Exceptional piece. My next door neighbor in Alexandria, VA was a Navy LTCDR in Public Affairs stationed on BB-62 at the time. David's narrative tracks with what the neighbor told me when he returned from that deployment. However, nothing of this nature ever happens in a vacuum. To get a complete picture of what was going on at the time, one needs to be aware of the environment in the States. For example, the fallout from a sequence of events listed below had everyone behaving like they were over caffinated:
1. Fallout from the Iranian hostage release as those personnel returned to duty -- 20 Jan 81
2. The attempted assassination of the President which left him wounded -- 30 Mar 81
3. Near accidental launch of a Soviet retaliatory missile strike -- 26 Sept 83
4. KA 007 shootdown -- 1 Oct 83
5. Assassination attempt against president of South Korea by NK Peoples Army officers in Rangoon --
9 Oct 83 (21 dead 46 wounded including many public officials)
5. U.S. Marine Barracks, Beirut, Lebanon -- 23 Oct 83
6. US invades Grenada -- 25 Oct 83
7. US deploys cruise missiles to UK in response to deployment of Soviet SRBMs -- 14 Nov 83
As you can see Beirut was center stage only for those that were there. In fact, 1983 , it has been argued, was the most dangerous year of the Cold War.
Very interesting article. I had forgotten the detail of this US Marine tragedy.