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Training and Deployment of America's Nuclear Cold Warriors in Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Steve Rabson
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Abstract

The book presents personal accounts by veterans of an Army nuclear weapons storage base in Henoko Village, Okinawa during the 1960's in the context of nuclear weapons history, Cold War tensions, and the proposal to use them in Vietnam. They describe their entrances into the Army, training, leave times, re-entry into civilian life, and illnesses associated with radiation exposure three of them later suffered, one of whom died in 2015.

Keywords

nuclear weaponsradiationOkinawamilitary occupationsecretbase townVietnam WarHonest JohnNike Herculesnuclear land mines
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 17 , October 2022 , e4
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2022

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References

Notes

1 Between 1946 and 1958 the U.S. nuclear testing program drenched the Marshall Islands with firepower equaling the energy yield of 7,000 Hiroshima bombs. In 1946, Navy Commodore Ben Wyatt met with the 167 people living on Bikini Atoll. Wyatt asked the Marshallese to relocate, and for use of their atoll “for the good of mankind.” He explained that they were a chosen people and that perfecting atomic weapons could prevent future wars. The residents were promised they could return one day, but of course they had no choice in this matter. Immediately following this speech, the U.S military began preparations to relocate all residents to Rongerik Atoll, an uninhabited island with limited resources 125 miles away. Residents of Bikini Atoll were resettled on other Bikini islands in 1969, but then evacuated in 1978, after radiation levels were determined to be excessive. (Atomic Heritage Foundation - Marshall Islands)

2 “The Absolute Weapon: Consideration of the Nuclear Option in Vietnam,” The VVA Veteran, November/December 2018, Vol. 38, No. 6, pp. 35-37.

3 John Prados and Ray W. Stubbe, Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh, Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

4 Ibid.

5 Robert Jordan served as a gunnery sergeant and Marine combat correspondent in Vietnam, 1968-69. He is the author of “Operation Meade River: The Largest Helicopter-Borne Combat Operation in Marine Corps History,” The VVA Veteran, May/June 2018, Vol. 38, No. 3.