Why Radio Silence Meant The Possible Extinction of Mankind.

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In days long ago at the iciest time of the cold war when I worked for GCHQ, at what the BBC described as, "the electronic eavesdropping spy station at Cheltenham" I worked in  J Division who were responsible for monitoring Russian communications.
 It was in the interests of politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain to play up the threat so that billions of pounds/dollars/roubles could be spent on what Eisenhower, who deserves a larger and more noble role in modern day history, warned was a potential risk to democracy by stating that:-

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

 It is in the interests of politicians to suggest to their populations that threats to them exist, either internally or externally, so that they can forge ahead with their own hidden agendas. And so we were led to believe that nuclear catastrophe was imminent and that more and more nuclear weapons and their launch pads were needed in order that MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) kept us safe and sane!

 In fact during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world thought that we were on the edge of nuclear annihilation, the spies trade union members, from both sides, met through back channels (more on these another day) to ensure that no such thing would happen. I firmly believe that after losing 25 million souls during the Second World War that although Russia would defend it's motherland to the  death it never had any intention of invading the west.

 However we were briefed at GCHQ that, contrary to what you would expect, if an attack was imminent then rather than the airwaves being buzzing with traffic then RADIO SILENCE would prevail so that the enemies communications would not be de-coded and positions revealed. Fortunately this never happened, except for the New Year, when the Russian armed forces all went on leave or were too pissed on vodka to put together a coherent transmission

 As for Eisenhower then this speech is worthy of study as a definitive statement of the American perspective of the world at that time and also reveals the humanity of the man.