Although the Republican presidential candidates raised a ruckus, Iran’s seizure of American naval servicemen is nothing compared to the crazed standoffs from the past.
The past week, Iranian forces took 10 members of the Navy after their vessels entered Iranian waters. Although they were subsequently released, the Republican presidential debate made them symbols of the Obama administration’s weak stance on Iran. However, despite the fact that the situation did little to improve U.S.-Iran relations, the incident was nowhere near the level of previous historical conflicts in history.
On April 1, 2001, an American surveillance and recon plane containing 24 American airmen violently collided with a Chinese fighter jet in international airspace off the shore of China’s Hainan island. The impact killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American pilot to crash land on Chinese territory. Chinese forces swiftly swooped in and took the 24 Americans into custody.
For the next 11 days, the United States and China bickered on the international stage as blame was allocated on the other side. While the Chinese demanded a formal apology, the Americans denied culpability and refused to take responsibility for a period of time.
The conflict was concluded when the U.S. ambassador to China in Beijing sent a regretful letter. Despite the fact that the U.S. still refused responsibility for the unfortunate incident, the U.S. agreed to back down and meet with Chinese officials about American recon missions near China. The U.S. later paid China $34,000 for the resources devoted to retaining the American servicemen in detention.
Even more ferocious contention than the U.S.-China conflict mentioned above were the many times the U.S. and the Soviet Union were on the verge of sending the world up in smoke with their stockpiles of live nuclear warheads, most notably the B-59 submarine incident.
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The situation began to spiral out of control on Oct. 27, 1962, the climax of the ongoing Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviets had sent a submarine, B-59, to putter around extremely close to the American blockade around Cuba. However, B-59 failed to escape the attention of the USS Beale, an American destroyer. The USS Beale began dropping non-lethal depth charges, intended to force the B-59 to surface.
The captain of the B-59 mistakenly identified the charges as live explosives and the start of World War III. Moments after the charges were dropped, the captain of the B-59 ordered the nuclear warhead stored aboard the submarine to be launched at the American ship. The launch of the nuclear missile most definitely would have led to retaliation, and the world would be a much different place today if it somehow managed to escape the firestorm of nukes the Americans and Russians would launch at each other following the conflict.
The reason why history wasn’t so irrevocably altered was because of a solitary Soviet officer: Vasili Arkhipov, the second-in-command of B-59. The nuclear launch required the authorization of the top three officers of the B-59, and only Arkhipov’s demand to hear direct orders from Moscow prevented World War III from destroying much of the world.
Oct. 27, 1962 simply wasn’t a good day for history. Not only did it boast the near-start of World War III off the coast of Cuba, the date also has the dubious honor of having another near-start of World War III by the Russian-Alaskan border.
Charles Maultsby, a U2 spy plane pilot, was sent on a recon mission close to the North Pole. However, the glittering of the Northern Lights obscured all landmarks for Maultsby, causing him to accidentally veer into Russian territory. The Soviet Union noticed the intrusion immediately and, terrified that the American plane could be a nuclear bomber, sent two fighter jets to blow Maultsby out of the air. The Americans, in response, sent two fighter jets to blow the Russian jets if they dared to assault Maultsby’s puny recon plane. If the Soviet pilots had opened fire, World War III most certainly would have started and ended the world as we knew it.
Although Iran’s seizure of American troops seems egregious and weak toward the Republican presidential candidates, it’s nothing compared to the world ending scenarios that took place over the past 50 years.
Richard Hwang is a student at Athens High School. Email him at rhwang999@gmail.com.
