Relations between the United States and Soviet Union further deteriorated with the downing of Korean Airlines 007, merely a month before the False Alarm incident.
“Fellow Americans, I'm coming before you tonight about the Korean Airline Massacre--the attack by the Soviet Union against 269 innocent men, women, and children aboard an unarmed Korean passenger plane. This crime against humanity must never be forgotten—here or throughout the world.”
-Ronald Reagan [4]
Tragedy in the Skies
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Just twenty-five days before the False Alarm incident, a South Korean plane on its way from Anchorage to Seoul was shot down by the Soviets after it strayed into Soviet airspace, killing everyone, including a US congressman, on board. [30] |
Flight Path of KAL Flight 007 (click image to enlarge) [31]
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Afterwards, the Soviet Union denied responsibility for this incident and claimed that the plane was on a spy mission for the United States. [33]
"I wondered what kind of plane it was, but I had no time to think. I had a job to do. I started to signal to [the pilot] in international code. I informed him that he had violated our airspace. He did not respond."
-Soviet Pilot Colonel Gennadi Osipovitch: CNN Interview [32]
Soviet KGB Deputy Chairman Kryuchkov & German Minister Discussion of KAL Flight 007 [34]:
Click images to enlarge.
Click images to enlarge.
On the Plane Incident (Page 4)
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"Then, on the instructions of ground control, two missiles were fired. The shootdown occurred over the territory of Sakhalin."
-Comrade Kryuchkov: Wilson Center Digital Archive [35]
Reagan's Stance
Ronald Reagan denounced the Soviet Union on national televison for "turn[ing] against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere.” [5]
"The Russians saw a U.S. government preparing for a first strike, headed by a President [Ronald Reagan] capable of ordering a first strike."
-Bruce Blair: Bright Star Sound (U.S. & Russian nuclear security expert) [36]