The Politics of Global War: A Crucial Day in Moscow Part IV

The KGB Chairman revealed the deceit and fraudulence in the Defense Minister’s reports from earlier in the afternoon, as well as those from previous days. Yazov had knowingly sugarcoated the facts to make them more palatable. His motivation was simple; Buy time until the fortunes of the Soviet military were reversed. Yazov, for whatever reason, …

Cracks Widen: Poland D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part II

burst of street protests and clashes with ZOMO teams, most Poles had retreated to the confines of their homes to monitor events. As the hours flashed by and the Polish government remained on the sidelines, factions of citizens were organizing themselves for future protests. The air of uncertainty that settled in across Poland was not …

Cracks Widen: Poland D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part I

For the first half of D+16 Gdansk was the center of activity in the People’s Republic of Poland. The landing by Soviet naval infantry was completed and the beachhead secure by 1000. Shortly thereafter, two columns of APCs supported by light tanks were moving into the city. The larger of the two columns had been …

Cracks Widen: East Germany D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part III

0400- In East Berlin at the State Council Building , a meeting of the National Defense Council is hastily called for 6 AM. General Secretary Honecker, after separate deliberations with Defense Minister Heinz Kessler and Minister of State Security Erich Mielke, orders both men to remain in the building. Party guards loyal to Honecker take …

Cracks Widen: East Germany D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part II

The motivations behind the bold action Heinz Kessler took early on D+16 stemmed largely from personal rivalry and a desire for personal political gain. To say the Ministries of Defense and State Security were rivals would be a gross understatement. The relationship between the two had been irrevocably severed for years, fueled by professional, as …

Cracks Widen: East Germany D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part I

Word of the Pelkwitz incident reached the halls of the East German government early in the evening of D+15. The initial arrival came in the form of an unsubstantiated rumor with scant details passed between junior-ranking officials at the MND (Ministry of National Defense). It wasn’t until an hour past midnight that the news eventually …

D+16 Primer Part I

Back to reality in a manner of speaking. As I discussed earlier in the week, a primer for D+16 will help ease a lot of readers back into the world war raging in July, 1987. In some theaters the physical battles are winding down and the conflict is entering a political phase. Meanwhile in others, …

Cracks in the Pact D+15: East Germany Part II

The fuse was lit in Pelkwitz. Around 0400 hours on D+15, a damaged US Air Force F-16C Falcon, returning from a mission outside of Cottbus, crashed north of the tiny hamlet of Pelkwitz, just off of the Bundestrasse 102 roadway. A number of individuals on the ground heard or saw the crash. Some were farmers …

Cracks in the Pact D+15: Czechoslovakia

By this point in the war, cracks and fissures were beginning to appear in the Warsaw Pact. In the case of Poland, the cracks were destined to develop into a major eruption which would rock the continent. Other Pact nations were experiencing few evident or identifiable symptoms. And finally, in the case of nations like …

The Politics of Global War: Poland Teeters D+14 Part III

Jaruzelski was heard by the majority of Poles, however, the final three minutes of his address was prematurely cut off in some areas of the country. This was due to attacks on transmitters, and other communications links by KGB and GRU officers who responded quickest to the frantic orders going out from the Soviet embassy …