I decided to further research into the incident of the KAL 007. On September 1, 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Boeing 747 from its decent from New York to Sol Korea departed Alaska, on this route Soviets departed a missile. This killed 269 passenger and crew. Ronald Reagan scolded it and described it as a terrorist act of innocent people. It became known as the Korean Massacre, and US officials state that the Soviets might have mistaken it for an American spy plane. Sadly, the Soviet Union did not take blame or apologize for their mistake. Because of this Americans banned Russian goods, and made them "pay" for the lost lives. But there where many thought it was American fault, blamed them for placing the Boeing 747 into the line of fire to test the Soviets Missiles.
This is another event that really shows that Détente has ended. Soviet and American tensions had begun to rise again after Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the Moscow Olympics in 1980. There were other situations that occurred in this time as well, like the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident that was another close call to nuclear war.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Natalie's comment; the KAL 007 incident made the Cold War situation worse. Although it was an accident, it was completely avoidable. I do think that whoever was flying the plane should have been much more careful, because they would have avoided Soviet airspace if they were the least bit aware of tensions between the US and Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think you blame the pilot, Jia, as they were just following a pre-determined flight path. However, the whole situation could have definitely been avoided if flight control was more conscious of the political situation.
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