American Strategic Deception Bureau

　The Soviet Union would only be temporarily content with reality if it feared the United States' immense power and its willingness to use it. If the United States showed even the slightest sign of weakness or laxity, the Soviet Union would not hesitate to take the initiative and seek new expansion and coercion.

　On the contrary, the United States had the same attitude towards the Soviet Union. As long as it saw any signs of weakness in the Soviet Union, it would immediately stab it in the back without any hesitation.

　Therefore, President Kennedy must not be weak in the face of nuclear threats, not to mention that the United States’ nuclear arsenal now far exceeds that of the Soviet Union!

　As long as he doesn't want his personal image and the country's image to collapse, he must continue to increase his stakes and take Cuba down at all costs!

　Then, with the fall of Cuba to the US military, the Soviet Union's proactive nuclear provocation in the Western Hemisphere would also lead to a humiliating defeat.

　Even if they could regain face in the future on the battlefield in Western Europe or somewhere else, it would still be a very unlucky start.

　——Compared with Cuba, which is isolated in the Western Hemisphere, the Soviets would have much more room to maneuver even if they caused trouble in West Berlin, Austria or even North Korea.

　Unless the United States is willing to abandon its plan to invade Cuba, the Red Camp can hope to win in Cuba: but how can this happen?

　Could it be that the Soviets were so overconfident that, like some Indians, they thought that even God had to obey them?

　Of course, the world situation is changing rapidly, and even the number one player on the international stage cannot guarantee that everything will develop according to the predetermined plan.

　Especially Khrushchev, whose handling of international affairs was extremely poor. Whether it was the environmental enemy who caused the drying up of the Aral Sea, the diplomatic genius who ruined Sino-Soviet relations, the amateur shoe-tapping rapper at the United Nations, or the architect of the Berlin Wall, what incredible and outlandish actions has this man recently pulled off...

　It doesn't seem to be anything surprising.

　Who made this famous "Corn Emperor" always like to do whatever he wants, just like the future King of Understanding?

　As for how the situation would develop, Fili thought about it and felt that he needed to collect more intelligence before making a judgment...

　So he went to his study, took out his portable radio, and prepared to talk to someone about the current Cuban nuclear crisis.

　Although the Internet hadn't yet emerged in this Cold War era, and information dissemination wasn't as rapid as it is in the 21st century, the ham radio intelligence network could still, to some extent, achieve rapid, instantaneous information exchange.

　Unlike the Japanese during World War II, who were forced to shut their eyes and ears, they could only listen blankly to the reports of "great victories" and "advances" from the headquarters. Then, amidst the cries of "long-lasting military fortunes," they inexplicably encountered incendiary and atomic bombs falling overhead...

　It can be said that they won all the way from Pearl Harbor to the Tokyo bombing, which makes people feel both ridiculous and sad.

　-

　The so-called "Ham Tribe" are amateur radio enthusiasts, who are commonly known as "HAM" in the world - the English translation is "Ham".

　Before the Internet became popular, poor people in developing countries generally lacked the relevant knowledge and money to afford private radios. Even listening to foreign radio stations on their own radios could result in them being charged with "privately listening to enemy radio stations" and arrested.

　But in developed countries in Europe and America during the Cold War, it was not expensive for ordinary people to build a radio station. Electronic components were easy to obtain, and official regulations were not so strict. Various technical geeks generally liked to show off their ability to build radio stations by hand - similar to the computer assembling skills of cyber experts in later generations. Even in the Warsaw Pact countries across the Iron Curtain, there were many radio enthusiasts.

　.

　Especially in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, using private radio stations to chat with distant strangers, and even forming primitive chat rooms, was a very popular and fashionable pastime among the middle class of science and engineering - a bit like the drifting bottle in the mobile Internet era.

　Because the regulations were lax at the time and there were no strict requirements such as licenses, private radios often had a transmission power of one kilowatt, which was astonishing.

　For example, Steve Jobs, who founded Apple, was a radio enthusiast when he was young, and later became a programmer working on computers.

　After the Soviet Union successfully launched its first artificial satellite in 1957, triggering the "Sputnik Moment" that shocked European and American society, the craze for radioactive wastelands and apocalyptic survival exploded, and more people in Europe and the United States began buying and stockpiling private radios.

　——Amateur radio, also known as doomsday technology, is the last communication guarantee when natural disasters occur.

　For any qualified doomsday survivalist, a private radio, like guns, ammunition and canned food, is a necessity for doomsday survival and rebuilding civilization: doomsday survival does not mean seclusion from the world. Even in a shelter, one must always collect the latest information from the outside world.

　A radio, or at least a high-performance radio, becomes a necessity to obtain information from the outside world and avoid being isolated from the world: you can't expect that after the end of the world, someone will still deliver newspapers and magazines to you, and that the TV station will still broadcast programs every day, right?

　Therefore, in today's United States and in the countries surrounding the United States, there are a lot of people who own private radios.

　Next, since you've already spent money on a personal radio, it would be a waste to leave it unused—unlike a can of food, it's gone once you open it. On the other hand, if you leave it in storage, it might break down by the time you need it.

　As a result, quite a number of Americans who have a little money, some free time and some technical skills have now made a group of friends from all over the world through their own private radios, and chat together through the private radio frequency when they have nothing to do every day: everyone thinks this is very cool and advanced!

　A considerable number of people joined several groups at the same time. Some experts even eavesdropped on military communications and tried to crack them, just like hackers in later generations.

　Then, as an authoritative expert in the field of nuclear explosion doomsday survival, Firi naturally also has his own private radio station and a large group of chat friends.

　On the morning of January 11, when Firi turned on his private radio and adjusted the frequency to "join the group", he found that the group was already very lively.

　——Think about it, during the Cold War, when a Soviet nuclear bomb exploded on our doorstep, how could there not be rumors flying around after suffering such a shock?

　"It's so scary! I just woke up this morning and heard about the nuclear explosion in Cuba! The Soviets actually planted an atomic bomb in Cuba!

　Oh my god! I haven't even finished digging the underground shelter in my backyard yet! I don't know if it will be finished before the apocalypse! OVER!

　"You're so slow! I heard about it last night! I'm sitting in the basement working the radio right now! OVER!"

　A tourist project to watch a nuclear explosion.

　The local Chamber of Commerce created a calendar for tourists with a timeline of the nuclear explosions. Hotels organized group picnics in the desert to watch the explosions, served "nuclear explosion cocktails," and held "nuclear explosion parties." Bakeries even created mushroom cloud cupcakes. Local barbers created designs for nuclear explosions, and Las Vegas High School featured a mushroom cloud on the cover of its yearbook. The school even held a special beauty pageant, selecting four "Miss Atomic Bomb" winners.

　Throughout the 1950s, Las Vegas was caught in a "nuclear frenzy" and was known as the "City of Nuclear Explosions."

　Countless tour groups come to Las Vegas from all over the country and even foreign countries, not to gamble, but to watch the nuclear explosion.

　——Well-dressed guests stood on the balcony, holding a martini in their right hand and a cigar in their left hand, excitedly watching the dazzling white light piercing the sky in the northwest and the mushroom cloud surging, just like watching fireworks in later generations... This was a common scene in hotels across Las Vegas at the time.

　So, if you were to ask who in the United States is the most unfazed by nuclear explosions, it would undoubtedly be the people of Las Vegas. For them, atomic bomb explosions are a daily occurrence, even more frequent than thunderstorms and rain—as a scorching desert city, rain is a rarity in Las Vegas…

　Of course, the sudden and crazy surge in cancer rates among Las Vegas residents for a long time afterwards was an inevitable outcome.

　"In fact, my sister went to Las Vegas to see the atomic bomb explosion five years ago. But now, seeing everyone around her so scared of radiation sickness, she can't help but worry about becoming deformed herself! Goodbye, everyone, I'm going to buy canned food now! OVER!"

　"I live in an apartment downtown, so there's no room for an underground shelter. However, my neighbor, a WWII Navy veteran, said today reminded him of that infamous day twenty years ago when the US was attacked by Japanese naval aviation and suffered the attack on Pearl Harbor. OVER!"

　"Pearl Harbor? Hey, for American citizens, the island of Cuba is much closer than the state of Hawaii! OVER!"

　"But Cuba is a foreign country after all. Strictly speaking, this should be another Maine incident, right? OVER!"

　"The Maine Incident that triggered the Spanish-American War? That's such a distant memory, but my great-grandfather actually participated in that war with Spain. He set foot on the island of Cuba with President Roosevelt and then vomited and had diarrhea from eating spoiled canned food. OVER!"

　"Whether it was Pearl Harbor or the Maine incident, at least there were no nuclear weapons back then, so losing the war wouldn't mean the end of the world. But now we have nuclear weapons, and surviving the apocalypse is really terrible! OVER!"

　"By then, the guys on Wall Street and Capitol Hill will be having the same bad time as you. Doesn't that make it balanced? OVER!"

　"Are you kidding me? Even if a nuclear bomb were to fall, a mushroom cloud would rise, and the world would be reduced to a radioactive wasteland, these wealthy men would have already prepared a super-luxurious shelter that's even more luxurious than the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs! Playboy even selected shelter girls to serve them! OVER!"

　"Sigh, I don't know what the point of endless civil defense drills is for ordinary people like us. No matter how well-planned the evacuation plan is in the event of a nuclear attack, will anyone actually follow it? Can we really survive a nuclear explosion? I doubt it! OVER!"

　"If we are fully prepared for war, then war will be nothing. This is what our principal always says. OVER!"

　"Anyway, if a nuclear bomb were to drop, run to the subway! This is absolutely correct! OVER!"

　"I live in Houston! This city only has a space center, not a subway! OVER!"

　"The nukes haven't even dropped on Detroit yet, and the streets are already full of black people looting and burning things! OVER!"

　"Isn't it said that a world war only breaks out every twenty years? It's only been sixteen and a half years since the end of World War II! OVER!"

　"Besides, even if we were to fight a third world war with the Soviets, shouldn't we have started in Europe? Why did the mushroom cloud first rise over Cuba? It's like Hitler of Nazi Germany not launching a blitzkrieg on Poland in 1939, but instead launching a surprise attack on the Scottish Highlands! OVER!"

　"Perhaps, we're still some distance away from a new world war. After all, the Soviet Union hasn't declared war on any country yet! The nuclear crisis on Cuba isn't the same as Germany's blitzkrieg on Poland, but rather the Balkan War before World War I? Or perhaps the Spanish Civil War before World War II? OVER!"

　"Spanish Civil War? Well, nominally speaking, Cuba is indeed engaged in a civil war. So, the Soviets on the island of Cuba are the new International Brigade, and our young Marines. Are they the equivalent of the Condor Legion that Nazi Germany sent to Spain? OVER!"

　——Although the vast majority of Americans have a poor, or even extremely poor, knowledge of geography and history, that mainly refers to lower-middle-class Americans who have not received much education, such as ghetto blacks and “white trash,” as well as those who engage in art.

　Anyone who could handle a private radio was considered an intellectual, and was generally well-informed about world events of this century.

　"As to whether or not a world war will break out next, let's first listen to what the President will say this afternoon!

　VER!"

　"By the way, is President Kennedy still in the White House right now? Could he be hiding in some doomsday bunker? OVER!"

　"Doomsday bunker? There's no doomsday bunker for the president to hide in right now! From what I hear, the Cheyenne Mountain project isn't finished yet. OVER!"

　——The Cheyenne Mountain Military Base, also known as the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the number one doomsday bunker in the United States that often appears in Hollywood science fiction movies in later generations, was built in May 1958. It is located deep in the North American continent, and there are hundreds of meters thick granite above the cave as a cover, which is enough to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear bomb.

　The problem was that the Cheyenne Mountain base was so solid that construction was extremely difficult. Even the United States, with its financial and infrastructure capabilities at its peak, was still experiencing slow progress when digging through the solid granite to build the Cheyenne Mountain bunker.

　According to the plan, the Cheyenne Mountain bunker would not be completed until 1966 at the earliest, and President Kennedy would certainly not be able to use it by then.

　Well, it’s hard to say whether President Kennedy will still be alive when the Cheyenne Mountain bunker is completed.

　Of course, even if the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Cheyenne Mountain is not completed yet, the president will not have to worry about having no shelter to hide in - in the recent craze for radioactive wastelands, at least two hundred underground shelters have been excavated and built in Virginia near the capital Washington alone.

　Most of these shelters were private, but a number were government-built. While not as grand as Cheyenne Mountain's "Granite Cistern," they were more than enough to accommodate President Kennedy and his entire cabinet.

　However, Firi felt that as a naval hero during World War II and a battlefield hero who drove a torpedo boat to ram a Japanese destroyer, President Kennedy should not be like those presidents in the future who had never seen big scenes and would become a "bunker boy" when encountering a little trouble, right?

　Through private radio, Firi was not only able to contact the "hams" in the United States, but also many foreign chat friends who used private radio in the several "chat groups" he participated in. They were also worried about the nuclear explosion that had just occurred in Cuba.

　For example, in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, over 300 kilometers from the nuclear explosion site in Trinidad, a Spanish-speaking "ham" chatterbox claimed that construction had suddenly begun on the Governor's Palace, with sandbags piling up behind the courtyard wall to reinforce it to withstand the stronger shockwave. The main building's walls were even temporarily covered with a layer of shiny tin foil, apparently to reflect as much of the nuclear radiation as possible and prevent it from melting.

　In addition, wealthy people in Jamaica were desperately cleaning up their basements, becoming temporary cave dwellers, or simply fleeing cities that were more likely to be bombed and moving to manor houses in the countryside. Some poor people hid in caves and set up camp like savages.

　The biscuits, canned meat, rum and sugar in Kingston stores were sold out in half a day, and even the long-lasting salted fish were snapped up.

　Well, at the same time, gasoline at gas stations and a bunch of common medicines in pharmacies were sold out, and even cigarettes suddenly increased in price.

　My friends in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, just bought a bunch of canned food, biscuits and beer today and stored them at home. However, not many people escaped by boat or plane - perhaps they think that if a nuclear war breaks out, the survival rate will be much higher on a remote island than in a transportation hub city?

　In the Cayman Islands, even closer to the hypocenter, a previously active local chat user has been out of contact since yesterday evening, unreachable on any frequency. Some suspect he's suffered an accident during the explosion. However, Firi believes the electromagnetic storm from the explosion likely disrupted radio communications, damaging components of the radio station, which remains unrepaired.

　After all, the Cayman Islands are over 200 kilometers from Cuba, twice as far as the distance from downtown Las Vegas to the U.S. military's nuclear test site! Since the people of Las Vegas aren't blinded by the flash of a weekly nuclear explosion, it's reasonable to assume nothing serious will happen to the Cayman Islands either.

　However, in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, which is also very close to Cuba, the few local ham chat friends are generally in a very stable mood.

　They say the streets of Port-au-Prince haven't changed much today. Compared to the ubiquitous Tonton Macoutes (men covered in sacks and clubs) and the frequent voodoo blood sacrifices in Haiti, even a nuclear mushroom cloud wouldn't seem that terrifying.

　Well, Haiti is indeed worthy of being the most famous "shithole country" in the Americas. No matter what bombs are dropped there, it will only stir up shit.

　Besides describing the apocalyptic atmosphere and panic surrounding them, the hams' wireless messaging networks and chat rooms also revealed a wealth of military intelligence, some of which was difficult to verify. For example, in the Atlantic Ocean east of the Bahamas, the US Navy intercepted a Soviet merchant ship, and a US destroyer appeared to have clashed with a Soviet submarine underwater, firing depth charges indiscriminately.

　In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, a steady stream of wounded and sick American soldiers were carried out of the airport, overwhelming the city's hospitals. Some exiled politicians, who had been eager to take office in Cuba, now returned to bars in the Dominican Republic or Florida to get drunk...

　Based on the above information, Firi speculated that the Soviet nuclear bomb detonated on the Cuban battlefield should not be a long-range nuclear missile - if it was, then the bombing of Florida would obviously

　It is more effective; nor is it a nuclear bomb carried by a bomber, because air supremacy on the battlefield has already changed hands.

　Rather, it is similar to the big bombs hidden in the base by the villains in old cartoons, which are ignited and exploded when they are defeated, and both sides die.

　If the Soviet nuclear weapons deployed in Cuba were merely missiles without weapons, unable to threaten the US mainland, then the situation would remain manageable. Even if more mushroom clouds rose over Cuba, it wouldn't necessarily escalate from a local conflict to a global nuclear war.

　Of course, we can only judge the exact situation after listening to President Kennedy’s upcoming speech to Congress.

　Chapter 111: The Brink of Nuclear War

　January 11, 1962, 2:00 PM Eastern Time

　Americans, who had just woken up from their first nuclear attack in war, were still in shock.

　However, the Trinidad nuclear explosion did not occur on American soil, but on Cuban soil. So despite widespread public panic and the unscrupulous media hyping up the situation, the official attitude was still relatively calm.

　Some bipartisan members of Congress on Capitol Hill made impassioned speeches, declaring that personal issues were no longer important in the face of the imminent nuclear crisis, and that they would put aside their differences and unite in times of national crisis to deal with the unprecedented nuclear war crisis.

　Martin Luther King, a prominent Black leader in recent years, declared a moratorium on the civil rights movement. He believed that under a nuclear explosion's mushroom cloud, both Black and white Americans would face equal death. Furthermore, in a post-apocalyptic environment like a radioactive wasteland, the survival rate for Black people might be even lower than that of white people.

　——The vast majority of black people in the United States live in cities. There are very few black people in the countryside, and even fewer black people who have adapted to survival in the wild.

　Of course, although Martin Luther King made the above statement for the sake of the general situation, he was not as famous as Gandhi in India and could not restrain the black people in major cities of the United States - on this day, from Chicago to New Orleans, there were riots and looting stores everywhere.

　At the same time, citizens of Washington, New York and Miami were fleeing the city, and all roads out of the city were blocked into long queues.

　All sorts of bizarre rumors were spreading rapidly through the streets of Washington, D.C. Some claimed the US and the Soviet Union were about to declare war, and that World War III was about to break out. Others claimed the entire Congress was fleeing to underground shelters, and that the United States was about to usher in its first-ever "Bunker Congress."

　As for the Cuban War that is still going on, there are different opinions on whether it will become the fuse of World War III or another Spanish Civil War.

　After the nuclear mines were detonated, the Pentagon first ordered the front-line troops to pack up their remaining forces as quickly as possible and withdraw from the nuclear explosion site in Trinidad. However, this was extremely difficult to do because the two US aircraft carrier battle groups that were originally cruising in the waters of Cuba turned rudders and fled in a panic as soon as they observed the mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion, leaving behind the 1st Marine Division and the Cuban mercenaries of the 2506th Brigade who had been hit by a nuclear bomb on the island.

　After the 1st Marine Division was hit by a nuclear bomb, it lost contact with the Pentagon. No new information was released until January 11th.

　Was the entire division wiped out by Soviet nuclear bombs? Or was it that the survivors couldn't find any working radios?

　In desperation, the Pentagon had to dispatch a U-2 reconnaissance plane overnight, with the pilot wearing lead-lined protective clothing and risking his flight over the city of Trinidad, where a radioactive cloud still lingered, to scout the latest military developments.

　As a result, the U-2's aerial camera was severely affected by nuclear radiation, and most of the photos it took were blurry. But in the few recognizable photos, Pentagon staff discovered a terrible fact:

　The Cuban army, which had been defeated, launched a counterattack towards the landing site again after the nuclear explosion!

　It must be said that as a world-renowned red idol of another era, Che Guevara's strategic vision and tactical command ability may not be very good. However, his personal charm and appeal are unquestionable and even outstanding.

　Therefore, after seeing the mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion rising from the port of Trinidad, he immediately gathered the remaining Cuban troops around him and shouted at the top of his lungs to encourage the officers and soldiers who had just suffered a devastating defeat: "Do you see the mushroom cloud over the mountain? The Soviet allies have brought divine punishment on the enemy! The time for counterattack has come! For faith, for country, for our land! For our brothers and sisters!"

　So, under the leadership of Che Guevara, more than 3,000 Cuban soldiers stopped their retreat and turned around to "charge towards the mushroom cloud."

　And before them, the US Marines and CIA mercenaries, freshly struck by an atomic bomb, were still bewildered and at a loss. Not only had their organization level been reduced to zero, but their morale had plummeted to negative levels... From any perspective, their future looked bleak...

　The Pentagon is also powerless in this regard, because without accurate intelligence, it is difficult to even bomb the nuclear explosion area again.

　——When the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US military did not send strategic bombers to bomb them again within 24 hours after the explosions!

　In addition to the hasty withdrawal of troops from Cuba, the Pentagon hastily dispatched more naval ships and patrol aircraft to strengthen the isolation and blockade of the Atlantic line. The goal was to strictly guard against any new Soviet ships from entering the Caribbean Sea, so as to avoid

　More nuclear bombs were dropped on Cuba.