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Shootdown: The Verdict On Kal 007
Shootdown the Verdict On Kal 007
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
353 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
32 people want to read
About the author
R.W. Johnson
38 books22 followersR. W. Johnson is a British-South African journalist and historian. Born in England, he was educated at Natal University and Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar. He was a fellow in politics at Magdalen College, Oxford, for twenty-six years; he remains an emeritus fellow. He was formerly Director of the Helen Suzman Foundation in Johannesburg.
He is currently a South Africa correspondent for the London Sunday Times and also writes for the London Review of Books. His articles for the LRB generally cover South African and, to a lesser extent, Zimbabwean affairs.
~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._W._Jo...
He is currently a South Africa correspondent for the London Sunday Times and also writes for the London Review of Books. His articles for the LRB generally cover South African and, to a lesser extent, Zimbabwean affairs.
~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._W._Jo...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 25, 2018
Shootdown is a fascinating piece of Cold War techno-paranoia, a web of circumstance carefully stitched together by British academic R.W. Johnson. The basic facts are clear. At 13:00 UTC, August 31st 1983, Korean Airlines Flight 007 departed Anchorage en route to Seoul. It strayed over Soviet territory, and was shot down at 18:26:46 UTC on September 1, 0626 local time over Sakhalin Island. 269 people were killed, including an American congressman. All parties involved began making accusations and counter-accusations, an international investigation was stonewalled, and the truth disappeared, along with the plane. Tensions between the superpowers escalated another notch, and the situation resumed.
Johnson argues that it is unlikely that the highly trained KAL crew could have made such a fatal navigational error. Rather, he sees KAL 007 flightpath as part of deliberate ploy orchestrated by National Security Adviser William P. Clark Jr. and CIA Director William J. Casey to gain electronic intelligence of Russian defenses in the volatile North Pacific. This effort was part of long tradition of aggressive surveillance by aircraft, most famously Gary Powers U-2 shootdown in 1960. The flight was monitored by an armada of sophisticated sensors, and arranged with the help of the strictly anti-communist Korean Central Intelligence Agency. An earlier incident, KAL 902, had ended in only two deaths, and the gamble of using a plane full of civilians was seen as worthwhile. After all, the Soviets wouldn't shoot an innocent airliner down, right? Except they did, and then the Reagan administration had to arrange a cover-up, which was aided by the tone-deaf propaganda of the Soviet Union.
It's a convincing story, with the single flaw being that it is entirely wrong. Johnson argues that the flight data recorders (the black box) were either destroyed by the US, or never recovered. What he had no way of knowing was that the black box was recovered by the USSR, and their tapes were released in late 1992. The revised report, with all the evidence, is clear. The crew of KAL 007 made a navigation error and failed to switch the autopilot from compass heading to INS waypoints. They never knew that they had entered Soviet airspace, and the Soviet Pacific defenses, far from being the well-oiled machine Johnson believes them to be, were beset by broken equipment and sclerotic command and control. It was a tragedy, and the Soviets shot without provocation.
For what's it worth, Johnson makes a bold stab at the getting the story straight. There was never much reason to trust the official Reagan administration stance on anything. His accounts of superpower technological confrontation are still gripping. The intrigues and incompetence of Reagan administration officials is very familiar. While at the end of the day, this is a conspiracy theory built on circumstantial evidence and gaps in the official record, it's at least plausible that KAL 007 was an unauthorized ELINT probe. Meanwhile, in our present darkest timeline, the right-o-sphere and even some Trump people are fixated on QAnon*, a series of cryptic hints delivered over childporn board 8chan that (((Globalist Deep State Bankers))) are engaged in a massive child sex-slave ring, and that Trump has arrested thousands of these people on double-secret warrants, and that commands are being sent via the web equivalent of number's stations.
Can we have the Cold War back, please?
*QAnon description is approximate. It's... nuts, is all I can say.
Johnson argues that it is unlikely that the highly trained KAL crew could have made such a fatal navigational error. Rather, he sees KAL 007 flightpath as part of deliberate ploy orchestrated by National Security Adviser William P. Clark Jr. and CIA Director William J. Casey to gain electronic intelligence of Russian defenses in the volatile North Pacific. This effort was part of long tradition of aggressive surveillance by aircraft, most famously Gary Powers U-2 shootdown in 1960. The flight was monitored by an armada of sophisticated sensors, and arranged with the help of the strictly anti-communist Korean Central Intelligence Agency. An earlier incident, KAL 902, had ended in only two deaths, and the gamble of using a plane full of civilians was seen as worthwhile. After all, the Soviets wouldn't shoot an innocent airliner down, right? Except they did, and then the Reagan administration had to arrange a cover-up, which was aided by the tone-deaf propaganda of the Soviet Union.
It's a convincing story, with the single flaw being that it is entirely wrong. Johnson argues that the flight data recorders (the black box) were either destroyed by the US, or never recovered. What he had no way of knowing was that the black box was recovered by the USSR, and their tapes were released in late 1992. The revised report, with all the evidence, is clear. The crew of KAL 007 made a navigation error and failed to switch the autopilot from compass heading to INS waypoints. They never knew that they had entered Soviet airspace, and the Soviet Pacific defenses, far from being the well-oiled machine Johnson believes them to be, were beset by broken equipment and sclerotic command and control. It was a tragedy, and the Soviets shot without provocation.
For what's it worth, Johnson makes a bold stab at the getting the story straight. There was never much reason to trust the official Reagan administration stance on anything. His accounts of superpower technological confrontation are still gripping. The intrigues and incompetence of Reagan administration officials is very familiar. While at the end of the day, this is a conspiracy theory built on circumstantial evidence and gaps in the official record, it's at least plausible that KAL 007 was an unauthorized ELINT probe. Meanwhile, in our present darkest timeline, the right-o-sphere and even some Trump people are fixated on QAnon*, a series of cryptic hints delivered over childporn board 8chan that (((Globalist Deep State Bankers))) are engaged in a massive child sex-slave ring, and that Trump has arrested thousands of these people on double-secret warrants, and that commands are being sent via the web equivalent of number's stations.
Can we have the Cold War back, please?
*QAnon description is approximate. It's... nuts, is all I can say.
December 21, 2021
R. W. Johnson's excellent contemporary forensics remain the best analysis of this major 1980s tragedy. While the clinical truth may never be known, Johnson sifted hrough the wreckage of evidence to construct the most likely hypothesis: that KAL 007 was on a secret undercover recon flight orchestrated between the US and Korean CIAs, and things went badly wrong for all involved.
While the US recouped advatange over the death of nearly three hundred civilians, the USSR felt the brunt of what was hyped into a major cold war atrocity. Reagan and cohorts sanctified themselves in the blood of the "sacrificed," but what was really involved? Through their protesting-too-much, Johnson found an open political window that let in a good deal of backdraft.
As a CIA "cowboy," current CIA chief Bill Casey had a long history of questionable and reckless deeds. As Reagan's campaign manager the allegations of the 1980 "October Surprise" hostage deal with Iran are one clue. His subsequent skullduggery with the contras and Iran grew from this. Add CIA aggression in Africa, Central America, and Asia and the scenario of a planned provocation is not too paranoid after all.
The "plot", then, seemed to be a test of Soviet radar defenses at its new Krasnoyarsk station, to "light up" its system in Northeast Asia to display its weaknesses. A civilian craft made the best cover. What was unfactored was the human element of a Korean pilot as reckless as Casey, going the extra mission mile and provoking a Soviet response. In the fog of weather and war the Soviet pilots took no chances.
Johnson is clear that the Soviets were in the wrong for shooting down any craft without positive determination. He did not let them off the hook, but neither would he absolve the West from its side of cold war responsibility by the mere fact of mass casualties. The "gain" of the resulting propaganda blitz was obvious: traction for the MX missile/Star Wars program. Seen in this light, the consequence may not have been so unintended after all, like the Brothers-to-the-Rescue shootdown over Cuba for passing the Helms-Burton Act.
Johnson does not take his hypothesis that far, nor is there any hard evidence for it. But what he did assemble from the debris of KAL 007's fuselage and propaganda remains damning enough. Definitely worth a read for those seeking a more truthful cold war perspective beyond Reaganite triumphalism.
While the US recouped advatange over the death of nearly three hundred civilians, the USSR felt the brunt of what was hyped into a major cold war atrocity. Reagan and cohorts sanctified themselves in the blood of the "sacrificed," but what was really involved? Through their protesting-too-much, Johnson found an open political window that let in a good deal of backdraft.
As a CIA "cowboy," current CIA chief Bill Casey had a long history of questionable and reckless deeds. As Reagan's campaign manager the allegations of the 1980 "October Surprise" hostage deal with Iran are one clue. His subsequent skullduggery with the contras and Iran grew from this. Add CIA aggression in Africa, Central America, and Asia and the scenario of a planned provocation is not too paranoid after all.
The "plot", then, seemed to be a test of Soviet radar defenses at its new Krasnoyarsk station, to "light up" its system in Northeast Asia to display its weaknesses. A civilian craft made the best cover. What was unfactored was the human element of a Korean pilot as reckless as Casey, going the extra mission mile and provoking a Soviet response. In the fog of weather and war the Soviet pilots took no chances.
Johnson is clear that the Soviets were in the wrong for shooting down any craft without positive determination. He did not let them off the hook, but neither would he absolve the West from its side of cold war responsibility by the mere fact of mass casualties. The "gain" of the resulting propaganda blitz was obvious: traction for the MX missile/Star Wars program. Seen in this light, the consequence may not have been so unintended after all, like the Brothers-to-the-Rescue shootdown over Cuba for passing the Helms-Burton Act.
Johnson does not take his hypothesis that far, nor is there any hard evidence for it. But what he did assemble from the debris of KAL 007's fuselage and propaganda remains damning enough. Definitely worth a read for those seeking a more truthful cold war perspective beyond Reaganite triumphalism.
December 23, 2017
Very interesting and alarming.
July 31, 2019
Just another example of cold war cynicism - using a civilian airliner to penetrate Soviet airspace to collect Sigint. Crazy.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews