July 19, 1999 During the U.S.-Japanese negotiations about the reversion of Okinawa to Japan, a National Security Council study from April 1969 concluded that “Japan now acquiesces” in port visits by nuclear-armed warships. Despite the Japanese government’s public assurances that no nuclear weapons would be allowed in Okinawa following reversion, “this right [to introduce nuclear […]
Archives
Removal of U.S. Nuclear Weapons from Taiwan and the Philippines
Amidst the debate in the mid-1970s over nuclear weapons in Japan and South Korea, the United States quietly pulled out its land-based nuclear weapons from both Taiwan and the Philippines. The pull-out from Taiwan occurred in 1974, when all nuclear weapons were moved to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Only two years later, 140 […]
World-Wide Deployment of U.S. Strategic Air Command Nuclear Bombs (mid-1958)
Four years before the Cuban missile crisis erupted over Soviet deployment of nuclear weapons in Cuba, the U.S. Strategic Air Command had nuclear bombs deployed in 41 locations worldwide. The locations included 14 bases on the territories of six foreign countries: Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Japan (Okinawa), Morocco, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The bomb-arsenal included […]
Following Bomber Crash, U.S. Copenhagen Embassy Urges State Department To Lie About Flight Route
Shortly after the crash of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber on the ice off Thule Air Base in Greenland, Danish media began to speculate that the aircraft have operated in Greenland airspace prior to the accident. Danish policy prohibited nuclear weapons on Danish territory (including Greenland). In a telegram addressed to the Secretary of State, the […]
Missile Defense Planning: TMD Planning in Korea
TMD Planning In Korea This page describes an 1998 7th Air Force briefing on Theater Missile Defense (TMD) in Korea. The document was partially declassified and released under the Freedom of Information Act and describes the TMD “strategy we are employing on the Korean Peninsula.” The briefing examines how the US detects and warns CFC […]
Withdrawal of US Nuclear Weapons from Korean Peninsula
USCINCPAC Command History for 1991 Volume I, pp. 90-93. Obtained under provisions of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) U.S. nuclear weapons deployments and policies in the Asia-Pacific regionby Nautilus Institute October 1998 Explanation: These pages of this USCINCPAC Command History for 1991 provide the first known official confirmation of the date […]
U.S. Nuclear Forces On Okinawa Increased SIOP Commitment After Reversion of Island to Japan
U.S. Pacific Air Forces At Kadena Air Base increasedtheir SIOP Commitment in 1974, two years after reversion of the island to Japan. Although nuclear weapons had been removed from the island in 1972, the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing at Kadena Air Base continued to play “a major SIOP non-alert role.” Obtained under provisions of the […]
HQ ACC B-1 Nuclear Rerole Plan
U.S. Nuclear Command And Control Operations In Japan
In 1965 Yokota Air Base and Kadena Air Base in Japan were designated as dispersal bases for U.S. nuclear command and control aircraft. Since then, annual deployments of such aircraft to Japan have continued to exercise command and control of nuclear war plans including strike coordination with U.S. strategic nuclear submarines operating in the waters […]
U.S. Nuclear Reorganization in the Pacific
The removal of nuclear weapons from Okinawa in connection with the reversion of the island back to Japan in 1972 was part of a much larger U.S. reorganization of nuclear weapons forward-deployed in the Pacific theater. The reorganization occurred in response to serious criticism from U.S. military and civilian inspections of the U.S. nuclear posture […]