Stealth and Strategy: The Cold War's Military Tech Revolution

The world is changed forever by a new technology, nuclear. Two superpowers dominate the world, each facing the other in a state of neither war nor peace. This is the story of the Cold War, how the push of one button could lead to total global destruction. Together we shall save our planet or together we shall perish in its flames. How the struggle between two political systems caused millions to suffer. Spy was very much part of the Cold War. And how a world was created which lived in constant fear. Mad World, mutually assured destruction. In part six, a surprise move reignites the Cold War. Soviet helicopter gunship, the only precaution is to keep as still as possible. International animosity reaches into the sporting arena. I would implore all those with different opinions and feelings not to make use of the Olympic Games to divide the world but to unite it. As the threat of war increases, the FBI is on the trail of a deep cover agent. And he came out of this little room we had him in and he said if this guy was a spy, the loss is unbelievable. A wrong turn results in a midair catastrophe. It is clear beyond any doubt that the Soviet Union did in fact shoot down this unarmed commercial airliner. And Western Europe is put on high alert. If anybody crosses that line you shoot them dead on British territory. We could be faced with concealment, countermeasures and so-called cheating of all sorts because without SALT all of these actions would be permitted. July 1979. The world relaxes as Cold War tensions abate. SALT II has been signed. Nuclear disarmament is in progress and detente seems to be working. Then people start to evacuate a landlocked country in Central Asia. It's just a very ordinary evacuation. Just a precaution. I think there are probably about 100 official Americans that are leaving. We do know that there is insurgency activity in the country and our charge affairs has asked us to, us official Americans, to leave the country until situation stabilizes. Refugees start to cross the border in huge numbers. In Afghanistan 200,000 people are now living in exile in Pakistan. 200,000 people who have lost their home, their shelter, their clothing. They have got nothing. They depend on you support. Friction in Afghanistan has been building for over a year since a Marxist government took control. In December the Afghan government takes action. The limited contingent of the Soviet armed forces came to Afghanistan on the request of the Revolutionary Council and the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in accordance with the United Nations Charter. January 1980. Barbara Kamal is escorted by the Soviet army to Afghanistan and is installed as president. The West sees this as an invasion by the USSR. Americans realized that Afghans had been pressured into it or people had been paid off. It really was a tantamount to a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Such gross interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan is in blatant violation of accepted international rules of behavior. That the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan has dangerously transformed the character of existing political and strategic arrangements in this region and that therefore there ought to be a sustained effort to ensure the security of the threatened region. Despite the outcry from the USA they have also been interfering in Afghan affairs. America has been covertly supplying money and weapons to the anti-government rebels for over a year. President Kamal needs Soviet assistance to stay in power. I must also add that we are grateful to the Soviet Union our great neighbor in the north for all the help and assistance they had given us. Soviet Union felt like they were very much more powerful in the 70s because of our failure in Vietnam and the conversion of many countries to communism and they felt like they were on the march they were on the move. This is the third occasion since World War II that the Soviet Union has moved militarily to assert control over one of its neighbors. For the first time Jimmy Carter admitted that he finally realized what the Soviet Union was all about. Well the Americans were not quite sure what to do with regard to Afghanistan. There was concern that the country is so impossible to manage and govern even by the Afghanis and nobody else has ever really won the war there. The anti-government rebels call themselves the Mujahideen. My dad was supporting Mujahideen and he was never happy for the Russians to come to Afghanistan and occupy my country. My uncles from both sides from my mother's side and from my dad's side were fighting against Russians they were in the Mujahideen forces. Do you think that the Mujahideen alone can get the Soviet army out of Afghanistan and trouble the government? Really it is a difficult job really it's not easy. Afghanistan people they are very poor and they have not enough arms against these modern weapons of Russia but the people in other countries they could support the Mujahideen providing arms, weapons, money, food, clothes, medicine, anything. The Mujahideen are alarmed by Soviet occupation of other Muslim nations. We've seen what happened in you know Central Asians, Asian republics now you know Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, all the other republics. They're going to need millions of dollars worth of arms to fight the Soviet army. The U.S. goes public with its fight against the communist Afghan government. They figured you know we're not going to go in there and let it become a graveyard for our peoples. The Soviets are in there they've already made the commitment so let's just funnel aid to the northern alliance and then to the broader group called the Mujahideen and just make the Soviets pay the price for kind of getting going into the wrong place at the wrong time. Once the assistance come we will be in better shape to continue our struggle against godless Stalinist Soviets with the necessary need of a supply. We do have some tanks, machine guns and rifles but it is not enough. Many of the Mujahideen are Muslim fundamentalists. They seek support from wealthy Arab nations. I ask the Saudi Arabians for an allocation of two billion dollar funds to finance the war, the holy war in Afghanistan. Money and arms pour into both sides. The war flares up. I don't think they were there just for Afghanistan. They were there to reach to the warm waters and they wanted to expand you know their wings and become even bigger so they were not there just to come and occupy Afghanistan and stop there. Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion has been so fierce that the country is now closed to western newsmen. The only way open is to enter disguised as an Afghan freedom fighter. Soviet MiG fighters streak past on a bombing run against a town in a distant valley. Treat yourself to the best gift in history this holiday season. Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning podcasts and thousands of hours of original history documentaries released weekly exclusively on History Hit. There are topics for all history lovers from Pompeii to D-Day. Sign up via the link in the description for an exclusive discount. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the past like never before with History Hit. For this operation MiG-21s and Mi-24 helicopter gunships allegedly using napalm and rockets blasted the small town and the surrounding hills. The rebels in the hills had no chance. In Asmae itself, 1,500 inhabitants are believed to have died. It's the piece of weaponry most feared by the rebels, the Soviet helicopter gunship. Again the only precaution is to keep as still as possible. I remember distinctively around 4 a.m in the morning there would be roaring of Russian tanks because our house was not far from the main road in west of Kabul. So that was the supply route for you know Russian soldiers. More and more Afghan villagers evacuate their homeland. As in all wars today the scale of suffering is most visible in the refugee camps. Here in the northwest frontier province of Pakistan 600,000 Afghan refugees who have poured across the Khyber mountains now form the largest concentration of refugees in the world. Most of the men in this camp have been involved in fighting the Russians. They seem undaunted by the massive Soviet presence. The war we always thought was the war of ideologies and the war it became later on that you know Islam is under attack in that region. So that was how the war was sold inside those camps, refugee camps that Islam is under attack so you need to be mobilized to defend Islam from Russia. For by common consent the main aim of these hospitals is to patch up the wounded rebels and send them back into Afghanistan as soon as they are able to fight again. We don't think about losing or winning the war. We want to fulfill our duties and if we are killed we are killed in the way of God Almighty. One well-meaning relief organization recently sent the hospital a shipment of contraceptives. One doctor said not a lot of use we need more Mujahideen not less. Rumors grow the Afghan freedom fighters are seeking to wipe out more than just communism. The Russian news agency releases alarming reports. In the past year according to TASS anti-government rebels have destroyed 1100 schools almost a quarter of Afghanistan's total. These bandits and saboteurs are said to have murdered teachers, beheaded students and set fire to schools in a recent campaign of terror. The Afghanistan war has become much more than a battle of cold war ideologies. It is a religious war. Independent reports from Kabul and around other parts of Afghanistan say there is every sign that the Russians are preparing for a long stay. My dad was supporting Mujahideen. We were always fearful that one day you know the government forces or the intelligence could find this out and could pick my dad and we would never see him again. It happened to so many people you know overnight people would come some of them ended up in jail quite a few of them disappeared and they were killed. By the end of 1980 it appears that Afghanistan will not find peace for some time to come. And now there is no an area which is completely under control of Russians. More than 80 percent of Afghan territories under control of Mujahideen. If the Russians withdraw from Afghanistan is your struggle then over? Till we are not able to establish a pure Islamic system in Afghanistan we will continue our struggle. The USA moves to use more than military to get the Soviets out of Afghanistan. In 1980 Moscow was hosting the Olympic Games. In the view of my government it would be a violation of this fundamental Olympic principle to conduct or attend Olympic Games in a nation which is currently engaged in an aggressive war and has refused to comply with the world community's demand to halt its aggression and to withdraw its forces. The USA calls for an international boycott of the Games. Robust opposition to the U.S. call erupts. Solutions to the political problems of the world are not the responsibility of sporting bodies such as the International Olympic Committee. We already see the nation selected as host of the Summer Games describing its selection as recognition of the correctness of its foreign policy course and its enormous services in the struggle for peace. In Moscow's Palace of Congresses Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev recently accused the United States of going into hysterics over Afghanistan. One cannot ignore the increasing violence and intolerance in the world. I would implore all those with different opinions and feelings not to make use of the Olympic Games to divide the world but to unite it. Uproar spreads across the global athletic community. For the boycott to work the U.S. needs much more support. They decide to call on the help of the biggest athlete of all. I was made to believe that Russia is invading a Muslim country which could lead to nuclear war. Muhammad Ali is persuaded to visit a string of African nations to gain support for the U.S. Olympic boycott. And if the African people help by not going to the Olympics I figured this would have to show the Russians and the world what they're doing. Kenya is out of the Moscow Olympics. Kenya will not go and we consider this a big victory because Kenya is just about number one in track and field. What is the Olympics without Kenya, America and quite a few more countries we're sure A conference is called in Geneva by the United Kingdom. That there is a substantial likelihood of the boycott by United States athletes of the Olympics in Moscow. This may well be followed by boycott by other major sporting countries. And this clearly will affect the quality of the competition in Moscow. It was here in this city state of ancient Greece where the Olympic Games were born. But the Olympic spirit is no longer burning brightly. The Soviet involvement in Afghanistan and the resulting international protests have cast a long shadow over this year's Summer Olympics in Moscow with the United States leading calls for a boycott. Two months before the games begin the boycott is confirmed. The modern Olympics were revived by Baron Pierre de Coupeterre at the end of the last century. They draw their ideals from the ancient Greeks who for over a thousand years refused to allow politics or wars to interrupt them. Many Muslim and African nations joined the boycott as well as China, Spain and West Germany. A total of 50 countries agree to keep their athletes away from Moscow. In modern times there have already been two interruptions for world wars and today the future of the games is under threat. The boycott of the Moscow Olympics by the Americans really affected the games in a sporting sense of course because obviously some of the leading competitors would have been American and Soviets. In the meantime as the western world debates what to do and as athletes agonize over whether they should or shouldn't participate in the Moscow These Afghan wrestlers are expected, unlike many other athletes, to take part in the Olympic Games in Moscow. Greek actress Maria Moskoliou recites the traditional words in the Temple of Hera. If the old Greek gods can hear and see they may well be puzzled and probably even angered by the It's a great loss for the sports people. I can really empathize with them because you're training for four years. It could be a major milestone in your career and all of a sudden it's kind of kicked out from under your feet but that's politics. 80 countries participate in a much diminished Olympic Games. Time begins its long journey but could this be the last time? The Cold War has been reignited by the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union reinforces its defenses against NATO in Europe. The world is once again on alert for a nuclear World War III. Warsaw Pact has demonstrated that exercises such as this has arrayed a formidable armory to set against NATO. NATO estimates that the Warsaw Pact has almost three times as many battle tanks as the West. NATO countries are not capable of matching the conventional military strength of the eastern bloc. Despite a strategic arms limitation treaty, they come up with a nuclear solution. The Hague and European defense ministers arrive for a NATO planning meeting. At stake, one of the most crucial decisions in the alliance's history. Until now, the size of NATO's conventional forces and the effectiveness of America's nuclear umbrella have been the keys of the organization's defense strategy. Now the Americans want their European allies to share the nuclear burden and place on European soil for the first time medium-range nuclear missiles capable of striking at the Soviet Union. The missile selected for the European nuclear capability will go down in history as the weapon that fired up a continent. It's called a cruise missile. With its small fins, it's basically a more sophisticated version of the Second World War B-1 flying bomb. Because of its relative simplicity, it costs only about a thirtieth of a sophisticated modern jet fighter. Nuclear armed, it has a range of over 2,000 kilometers. Europe explodes in outrage. There have been no large protests like this for years, but the collapse of detente has heightened world tension. These people are protesting against American missiles planned for the UK. They fear Britain will become a major Soviet target. A single megaton blast would destroy buildings within two miles, burn people within ten. Defense planners think the Soviets could target 200 megatons on Britain. The cruise missiles are secretly flown to mainland Europe and Britain. The British-based missiles are installed on a massive air force base in rural southern England, RAF Greenham Common. These American missiles were based in silos underneath the ground in their firing trucks ready to go. The silos were coated with meters of concrete, holes in the ground basically, with obviously entrances and exits where the trucks were stored, surrounded by, rather like the Iron Curtain, razor tape, and rather large South States American military policemen armed, who were briefed very clearly, if anybody crosses that line, you shoot them dead on British territory. The peace people were going to get 30,000 people to come to Greenham Common to demonstrate against the missiles, to knock the fence down. The government were very embarrassed. We'd had to stop these women intruding onto the base. The perimeter was 14 kilometers long, a lot of it through woodland, so it was very difficult to see people creeping up to the fence. And we made a plan of action to defend this 14-kilometer site. I was with the airborne all day in a helicopter. On the day, it all passed without, I mean, they destroyed some of the fence, but they didn't get in. Remarkably, no guns were fired. Peace protesters will remain camped on the perimeter of RAF Greenham Common for a further 19 years. The Cold War is in full force once again. Many believe nuclear war is almost inevitable. One big question hangs in the air. Is it possible to survive such a war? Early warning radar stations like this have long been the key to Britain's home defense policy. These men can warn of attacks, bomb blasts, and fallout. That information would trigger population alerts through sirens and nationwide media. If a nuclear attack occurs, everything above ground will be lethally radioactive. The regional center would get information from field outposts like this, 900 of them across Britain. Soldiers would be expected to emerge to collect data from fallout measuring equipment. Every nation within reach of Soviet and American missiles must have a survival plan. The radar station will send data to government-controlled regional centers like this one in Birmingham. These are volunteers. So the circle, if you join it up at the top, that's right. So round to about there. Here, underground, standby generators power air conditioning that cuts out radioactive dust. The recent period of warming relations with the Soviet Union has left them dangerously unprepared. Workers plan to alert villages by phone, yet phone lines would probably be down. This information booklet is only now being distributed. British officials have feared people would lose it or be scared by it. Would they know what to do In a world of accelerating technology, it seems ordinary people have been left behind. In this village, there are regular home defense meetings at the local pub. Tired army officer organizes the meetings. Surrounded by swords and history books, he quietly assesses the horrors of nuclear war, fallout radiation, refugees. As tensions rise, civil defense becomes a major priority. Studies at Hiroshima, after the atomic explosion in 1945, have given scientists valuable information on how to protect a population from an attack. Across the Atlantic, the USA has been running war drills since the 1950s. All quiet in New York, if you can ever call New York quiet. What I mean is business as usual, with Times Square echoing to the everyday normal roar of the big city. Then sirens sound the alarm. The life of New York stops as the city's millions react to a mock attack by enemy raiders of this atomic age. From the stock exchange to air raid shelters, New York tests its civil defense. Judged by these pictures, New Yorkers certainly know their drill. And we would do bomb tests as children in elementary school, not bomb tests, but we would prepare for the atom bomb by sitting in the hall and putting our hands over our heads and bending down as if that would do anything. North America has been leading the way in an essential addition to homes for the nuclear age, fallout shelters. Do-it-yourself fallout shelters, this above ground model at Thomasville, Georgia, and the basement model at Wheaton, Maryland, are open for public inspection. Both are basically the same as to interior construction and decor. Both are designed and built by the government to specifications any around-the-house handyman can easily cope with. All the details are in a civil defense pamphlet, the family fallout shelter, blueprints for survival in this age of atomic peril. Meanwhile in Vancouver, Canada, a gentleman who prefers to remain anonymous is determined to protect himself against atomic warfare. His bomb-proof shelter has a Geiger counter for checking radioactivity. The floor is heavily insulated with lead to prevent radioactive penetration. Yes, he's well equipped to see it through, his supplies in the shelter including an oxygen tank. Nuclear shelters have been in the news ever since the first atomic bomb was dropped on a living city. In this second phase of the Cold War, many nations now consider them essential. Switzerland has one of the most advanced public defense plans. Here, every building less than 15 years old has its own fallout shelter. The government pays half, the house owner pays the rest. They're fully equipped. They know how to use air filters. They know the need for real protective doors and the need for proper shelter sanitation. And for housing developments, the program includes communal shelters like this one, and they're maintained in spotless condition for any emergency. The flaring up of the Cold War reignites an undercover world. 1985 was known as the year of the spy. There were five or six cases in that single year that were significant espionage cases that the FBI made arrests and got convictions. One of the biggest spy scandals of the 80s will be handed to FBI Special Agent Joe Wolfinger. I began as an FBI agent in 1969, and the Cold War was in full bloom. I worked criminal cases for a few years, but then began to work counterintelligence, counterespionage, if you will. John Walker works in the Codes Department of the U.S. Navy. His marriage breakdown is about to get him into serious trouble. When his former wife, from whom he was divorced, got drunk one day and called the FBI to report that her husband, former husband, had been a spy for 20 years. She said she believed that he made a million dollars from espionage over 20 years. The FBI investigates. We had the National Security Agency send a guy down, and he came out of this little room we had him in, and he was ashen. He said if this guy was a spy, then the loss is unbelievable. Walker was in charge of codes on Navy ships and communicating with Navy ships. A code, of course, is something that protects a message from being understood by the other side. As the agents dig deeper, they discover Walker may have revealed the plans and positions of troops during the Vietnam War. I had no doubt once I understood that this was a real case and that he had done that for 20 years, that there were widows at Virginia Beach, Norfolk, whose husbands were killed because John Walker compromised naval communications. The challenge is to prove Walker is a spy. Wolfinger and his team watch Walker day and night. We followed him on May the 19th, 1985, from his house. But when he got to Richmond, he turned north, and we knew something was going to happen here. The FBI agents believe Walker is on his way to make a drop. A drop, of course, is where a spy like John Walker would make an exchange and then go to a place, a specific place, and put a package down that contained classified information. Go someplace else and pick up a package that would contain money. As the day unfolds, Walker places a bag under a tree. Nine o'clock or so, Bruce Bray, an FBI agent assigned to Washington, came running out of the woods with a bag under his arms. He shouted into the radio, I've got it, I've got it, I can see it. It's got secret stuff in it. The agents have their evidence. They track Walker to a motel. We knew Walker was armed, but when he was confronted the night that he was arrested, and he had a gun in his hand, and for a moment, they were face to face. And then Walker dropped his gun and he was arrested. Interrogation reveals Walker had been spying for the USSR since 1968, but he is not a communist. I'm certain that his motivation was financial, was money. Despite the huge victory, the USA believes John Walker is just the tip of the iceberg. There's no way to know the answer to the question, how many John Walkers were out there and we didn't know. I think we were pretty successful, but you can never be sure that you've got them all. We had spies too, I'm sure, at least I hope we did. The decade of the most intense spying activity in the Cold War ends badly for John Walker. The government wanted Walker to talk and he ended up with a life sentence and never got out, so you can't do any better than that unless you execute him. But the execution option wasn't there. 1981, the victims of the latest Cold War conflict are gathering in ever greater numbers on the Pakistani border with Afghanistan. This is now said to be the largest concentration of refugees in the world, possibly numbering as many as two million or one-seventh of Afghanistan's entire population. The war in this mountainous country has been raging for two years. Despite US government support, the anti-government rebellion is not making headway. They now find themselves in the front line of the renewed Cold War, the souring of relations between East and West, to which the Soviet intervention contributed in no small part. There's been a steady stream of Afghans across the mountains and into the tent encampments that have sprung up in the northwest frontier province and Baluchistan. Reports from inside Afghanistan reveal what has driven these people from their homes. As we entered the town of Pagman itself, 7,000 feet up in the mountains, we heard but could not see shelling. Pagman is a ruined shadow of its once glorious past. Before the Soviet intervention, it was a town of tree-lined streets and villas built by King Amanullah in the 20s and 30s after independence from Britain. Now the town is ringed by 70 Afghan army posts commanding the surrounding hilltops. Many injured civilians are sent to a hospital in Kabul. At a hospital in the capital, the victims of a war they're too young to understand. These children were injured in a rebel rocket attack. According to doctors, the missiles rarely hit their intended target, government military installations, landing instead in heavily populated civilian areas. And he was active on the roads of Jalalabad, which is 30 kilometres east of Kabul, and he has got a bullet in his chest. President Mek, he is about seven, eight years old. He was wounded by a booby trap. There were quite a few neighbours of us lost due to these rockets. There was one rocket hit not far from my house, maybe three houses away from where I lived, and I lost a dear friend. Despite the devastation, some choose not to flee. Hidden in the ruins, some people are trying to live a normal life. As we found inside the town hall, there is also some kind of administrative structure working. It's run by the mayor, 31-year-old Mohammed Akbar, who was elected last year and seems to be the driving force keeping life in Pakman going. Unannounced, we travelled seven miles to a village from a distance apparently deserted and damaged. Within minutes, a gaggle of children and elders gathered round as if from nowhere. In one dark building, we found a mullah teaching a class of children. Sometimes the street where my grandfather used to live, you know, the situation would be really, really bad. You know, there was active war, a fight between Mujahideen and the government forces. You know, for a moment, people would hide, but after the fight was over, life would be normal. You know, they would just go on about their life, and they would do whatever they used to do just before that. And now comes a new threat, malnutrition. There are up to two million people in Pakistan, and even daily Soviet airlifts of food can't keep up with demand. So it was extremely difficult, very cold. I'm talking about winter days. It was very cold, and I remember I was craving for bread. The markets were empty. Not many food items were available. There were incidents where street dogs were too hungry, and they attacked, you know, kids. In the conflict between East and West, there's a large group of Afghan people no one is talking about. Western governments talk of the need to liberate Afghanistan, but for the country's women, it could mean the opposite. During Russian time, women in cities relatively enjoyed freedom. They could go to school, you know, they could wear whatever they wanted, and they, relatively, they enjoyed, you know, their basic rights. Communism became linked with women's emancipation. Under President Najibullah, women enjoy Western-style freedoms and a certain measure of independence. In the capital, for instance, they're able to enter higher education or seek jobs in the civil service or industry. My sisters, you know, they had no issues going out in the street with Western clothes as well. In other cities and rural areas, it was a very different story. Not many schools were functioning. Women could only go out if they had burqa or a proper hijab. So it was a distinction between life for women in cities and life for women in rural areas. In places where the rebels have control, female students come under threat. There have been reports that some female students at the university have been attacked by the mujahideen. As you know, the mujahideen don't like the education for the girls and for the women. Because of that, they don't like the women and the girls go to the university and study, and because of that, they attack the university. Women are empowered. They are given opportunities of education. Then, of course, they will have that ability to choose for themselves. What happened to the female students? How were they attacked? They threw acid in the face of the women. Some decide to fight back. These are women drawn together by the threat posed by the forces of Islamic fundamentalism. We join with the militia because we defend women's rights. We will fight against counter-revolution in our country. Although they are not fighting in the front line, many have received full military training and are ready to defend to the death their newly won rights. Fatima joined up five years ago. Her aims are twofold, she says, to defend the government and women's rights. If the fundamentalists come to power, the future for some women is likely to be a step backwards. Well, there were some very strong women that I came across over the years who had well understood the virtues of a more secular environment and were deeply unhappy about the support of Islamic extremists by the great powers playing games against each other. I mean, they were certainly a fantastically important group. Half the population within the country that were the real victims, I think, of that succession of unhappy interventions. John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, September 1983. 269 people board a Korean Airlines 747 bound for Seoul. The plane will not arrive at its destination. At 3.30 a.m. Seoul time, the Korean airliner disappears. It has been shot down. Wreckage begins to appear along the Japanese coast. After a week, the Soviet Union admits responsibility. Here is a brief segment of the tape, which we're going to play in its entirety for the United Nations Security Council tomorrow. There is conversation there about the pilots arming and then disarming their heat-seeking missiles about being locked on and then making sure they had the authority to fire, and they fired. On the night of the disaster, it was dark with gale force winds. The flight strayed off course and entered Soviet airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Russians believe the jumbo jet was a U.S. spy plane. Four jet fighters were scrambled from the Sokol Air Force Base. In those tapes, it is clear that they are reporting the aircraft destroyed and the planes are discontinued. You know, you don't arm and fire a heat-seeking missile as a warning shot. Once that missile is released, it seeks out and hits its target. Two missiles were on target. One exploded just behind the tail of the plane, the other by the left wing. The cabin of the 747 decompressed. Oxygen masks were deployed. It took 12 minutes for Korean Airlines Flight 007 to crash. Despite fury in Korea, the Russians claim the strike was legitimate. But there were tapes of actual radio transmissions by the Russian pilots of several planes, and it is clear beyond any doubt that the Soviet Union did, in fact, shoot down this unarmed commercial airliner. The USSR holds a press conference. One of the pilots states the airliner ignored tracer warning shots. And there was no conversation about warning shots or tracer bullets or anything of the type. What really happened is kept hidden. The USSR finds the cockpit voice recorder but does not tell anyone for nine years. Cold War relations are at an all-time low. They are willing to shoot down an unarmed commercial plane. They're certainly willing to shoot down an unarmed city.