Reply #5: Is anyone really surprised a very real strategic contingency such as this was discussed and this [View All]

[CynicalObserver]

understanding written?

The US and USSR had been just a few mistakes from a nuclear exchange earlier in the decade. Both had a strategic posture and doctrine almost completely oriented on war with the other. Anyone who can read a map and understand that military reality doesn't always match wishful thinking can see that this kind of discussion would have been an obvious point between the two countries (japan and the US). Also worth remembering that if it came to the point where this agreement was activated, one would assume open war had already broken out or was regarded as imminent. The agreement provides a mechanism of letting the US ask permission to put nukes in Okinawa or move them through there.

Are there really people who are surprised that such an agreement would be kept secret????