Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

[James G]

(139)

Late August 1984:

A petrol bomb had been thrown into the home of a US Army officer where he and his family lived in the Canal Zone. He was on duty; his wife and baby daughter were at home. The two of them lost their lives in the resulting fire. Panamanian police officers at first arrested a suspect but then inexplicitly let him go while saying officially that they hadn’t detained anyone at all. The same day, shots were fired at an American military base in the territory from distance with what appeared to have been a high-powered sniper rifle; two soldiers were killed, another gravely wounded. These twin events, combined with the state-organised public protests and also the provocative military manoeuvres on the part of the Panamanian Army, saw the Pentagon ordering a reinforcement mission to the garrison in the Canal Zone. The US military was beginning to feel the stretch with the recent reinforcement to the Korean Peninsula and also troops retained at a higher readiness level at home should there come a ground intervention in Mexico (there were preparations made but officially that wasn’t happening) but there was still some to spare. The 193rd Infantry Brigade based in the Canal Zone with its two battalions of infantry was reinforced by a third battalion, an Army Reserve unit from Colorado, to complete its force structure. In addition, a whole brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division was sent to Panama as well. There were national guardsmen in Puerto Rico and that formation there was given the order to start mobilising for possible deployment to Panama in addition to the regular soldiers deployed. Bentsen wanted more done. He wanted to deploy another brigade of paratroopers yet the White House wanted to hold those men back for now. What was dispatched to the Canal Zone was judged to be able to hold off any Panamanian attack until reinforcements could arrive to relive those on the ground. The secretary of defence had met with the president and found him in the mood to send troops to Panama; Kennedy was angry at Noriega for taking advantage of the distraction of the United States elsewhere by doing what he was at a time like this. The president was heavily-distracted by what was being said in the newspapers about his personal life but his stance on this issue was that Noriega wouldn’t bully the United States out of the Canal Zone, especially not when it meant having Americans killed in that attempt. However, on the subject of Mexico, when Bentsen raised the issue of whether this was the time to get serious about sending ground forces into Mexico, Kennedy once again refused to consider that notion. That wouldn’t happen under his presidency. He was not getting involved in a war which the United States could be seen as starting in Latin America. Bentsen told him that the United States hadn’t started the war which was already taking place. The president didn’t see it that way. He and his secretary of defence were at an impasse on this issue.

The soldiers flew from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Howard Air Force Base in the Canal Zone. C-5 and C-141 strategic transports, big multi-engined jets, flew the 1st Airborne Brigade down to Howard with the men, their equipment and supplies going along with those Army Reserve men from Colorado as well who were routed through Fort Bragg. A straight line from North Carolina to Panama went southwards and through Cuba. A slightly-longer route avoiding Cuba went above the Yucatán Channel and then near to Honduras and Nicaragua. The transport jets were laden with fighting men and couldn’t make those flights even with an escort without putting the passengers at risk. There had been shooting incidents with the Cubans in the skies over the Yucatán Channel and there were also either Cuban fighters or Cuban-controlled Nicaraguan fighters down in Central America. A different route had to be taken for the transport aircraft, going around Cuba to the east of that island and past Puerto Rico and then looping back around. The jets had the fuel to make that and the delay incurred wasn’t significant in real terms. They soon came into Panama with the arrival of those reinforcements for the Canal Zone’s defenders. That wasn’t the point though. In the Western Hemisphere, the United States was having to move around its own military forces cautiously less they come under attack. It had been a long time since that had happened. Central America from the Rio Grande to the Panama Canal was almost all in hostile hands apart from Belize and Costa Rica. Cuba had influence throughout and there was a belief that should the transports have overflown Cuba or Cuban-controlled/influenced territory, they would have come under attack. That would have brought a major United States response yet a lot of soldiers, helpless when aboard those jets, would have been killed first. The United States had thus been intimidated in such a manner into not risking that. Talk of such a situation would have been regarded as farcical only a few years beforehand yet it was happening now. Kennedy had been talking tough about acting to stop Cuba for all that it was doing yet the situation had come about that now this was the case because those words hadn’t been backed up by real action.

In and around Cuba, which those transport jets avoided, and also along the coast of Central America, there were other aircraft as well as many ships. They had all come from a different hemisphere and were too cautiously moving around. Concern over attack was one thing but more so was the intention to be as uninteresting as possible so no one would pay too much attention to them. They were busy delivering men, equipment and supplies as well… just for a different force with a different upcoming mission.

[raunchel]

And even more American troops have been drawn away to a place where they can do little with the actual war that's coming.

[lordroel]

Apr 25, 2018 19:55:11 GMT James G said:

In and around Cuba, which those transport jets avoided, and also along the coast of Central America, there were other aircraft as well as many ships. They had all come from a different hemisphere and were too cautiously moving around. Concern over attack was one thing but more so was the intention to be as uninteresting as possible so no one would pay too much attention to them. They were busy delivering men, equipment and supplies as well… just for a different force with a different upcoming mission.

That is a awful lot of uninteresting movement going on there.

[James G]

Apr 25, 2018 21:53:23 GMT raunchel said:

And even more American troops have been drawn away to a place where they can do little with the actual war that's coming.

This will continue too. Korea will get worse before the end of peace.

Apr 26, 2018 3:39:15 GMT lordroel said:

That is a awful lot of uninteresting movement going on there.

'Nothing to see here!'
Official course the US will look. But they will see something else rather than what it is.

[Dan]

Apr 26, 2018 6:05:10 GMT James G said:

Apr 25, 2018 21:53:23 GMT raunchel said:

And even more American troops have been drawn away to a place where they can do little with the actual war that's coming.

This will continue too. Korea will get worse before the end of peace.

Apr 26, 2018 3:39:15 GMT lordroel said:

That is a awful lot of uninteresting movement going on there.

'Nothing to see here!'
Official course the US will look. But they will see something else rather than what it is.

They will see only what the Soviets wants them to see and the President wants to see. 

[James G]

Apr 26, 2018 7:16:16 GMT Dan said:

Apr 26, 2018 6:05:10 GMT James G said:

This will continue too. Korea will get worse before the end of peace.

'Nothing to see here!'
Official course the US will look. But they will see something else rather than what it is.

They will see only what the Soviets wants them to see and the President wants to see. 

This was really helpful for putting into focus in my mind what I wanted to write tonight. The idea was already there, but this was of great assistance!

[James G]

(140)

Early September 1984:

There wasn’t an official suspension to Operation Avid Castle. However, there were no more air strikes taking place over Mexico. The Monterrey Government had wholly collapsed across the north & northeast while over in the northwest there remained those diplomatic difficulties with the Tijuana Government meaning that there was no cooperation on the ground. Fighter patrols of American aircraft were no longer being run above Mexican territory ready to protect the now missing strike aircraft. There were also only a few reconnaissance flights now taken place when before there had been many. US Air Force jets were covering the border regions (from inside the United States itself) and going down above Baja California but no further on intelligence-gathering and certainly not on the same scale as before. There was no longer any major fighting taking place apart from that in Baja California. It was there though in the first days of September, when the skies were almost clear of the Americans, that the pressure was really exerted on the Tijuana Government by Tirado López’s communists. In the south of the peninsula, the fighting moved to La Paz with that port city attacked from behind, the landward side, and soldiers fighting there for Tijuana unable to stop the city from being taken. Northwards, there came a major communist push from out of Sonora and towards the Mexicali Valley. The delta of the Colorado River stood in the way of that latter move: an opportune moment came for American air strikes to occur. Yet they didn’t. Washington wasn’t recognizing Tijuana and the diplomatic spat meant that the defenders on the ground weren’t given help from the skies. Whether American bombs would have been effective enough to stop the offensive which came was debatable but there they weren’t and into the top of Baja California came communist troops. The communists were on the march again, pushing westwards and unable to be stopped. Tijuana remained some distance away with mountainous terrain good for defence in the way but it was clear to most that the last days were coming of organised anti-communists resistance in Mexico.

At the White House, there was deep concern when it came to Mexico though not on where the fighting was taking place but instead when it came to Americans who remained inside Mexico now that Tirado López was on the cusp of final victory. In Mexico City there were those detained when captured fighting as volunteers for the defeated Northern Alliance; in Monterrey, there remained that embassy compound with the diplomats and military personnel surrounded in that city. The prisoners who were paraded for the cameras and called mercenaries & war criminals consisted of an assortment of people which the president had turned up his nose at when it came to them personally but made it clear that they were American citizens regardless of the views which they espoused and what they had gone to Mexico to do. He wouldn’t allow for them to be executed as Tirado López was threatening to do. The compound in Monterrey remained unmolested but surrounded with those inside reported to have been physically blocked from getting out of there by communist troops. This was an outrage, a clear breach of international law. Mexico City was the capital of Mexico, Tirado López had said, and those in Monterrey had been there working with an illegal secessionist regime. That was false and a lie to muddle the situation where accredited diplomats were being kept prisoner with weapons pointed at them and threats to shoot should they attempt to depart. Those who wanted the United States to take action against the communist regime pointed to both situations, two sets of hostages held in different circumstances, as justification for air attacks against Tirado López’s regime to recommence along with a movement of American troops into Mexico. The proponents of the latter had been long in their calls for this; there were demands to put troops into Baja California and to do so now. Kennedy refused to do so. He wouldn’t be drawn into doing that and was having Mondale work on a diplomatic solution to get every American out of Mexico who was being held there. He said so in a televised statement made to the American people though avoided any form of press conference or public meeting. The sex scandal he was facing with those revelations about his personal misdemeanors continued unabated; he was unable to bring that to a stop yet was committed to heading that off by bringing about ‘success’ elsewhere. That, unsurprisingly, was not regarded by anyone else as a winning strategy for November’s election.


Despite the lack of overflights by aircraft on tactical missions above Mexico, from where so much previous intelligence had been gathered, there was still an intelligence effort underway by the United States when it came to Mexico. The armed forces, the CIA and other intelligence agencies from the alphabet soup of organisations were busy collecting, collating and analysing information from many sources. However, political interference was everywhere with objectives that suited the careers of those at the top being more important that the national interest. People below were generally trying to do their jobs properly though there had been years now of this type of thing where the intelligence gathered was discarded if it didn’t fit the pre-set political thinking. Those who rebelled against this were pushed aside, slowly but effectively. What was observed in Mexico was now all taking place from afar as well, only adding to the dubious quality of understanding what was being seen in work environments which were unfriendly to those not saying the ‘right’ things.

Foreign troops were inside Mexico. That had been something denied at first but then a fact which had to be accepted as such in the end. The narrative became that there had always been foreign troops there in fact. Early September saw a revision of the intelligence picture on that put to the highest-levels of the United States Government. Cuban troops were inside Mexico alongside those of Guatemala and Nicaragua. None of these from elsewhere in Latin America were involved in the last of the fighting and were being held back in what were seen as defensive positions ready to respond to any American invasion of that country. From Havana, Guatemala City and Managua, there came the promises of defending the Mexican Revolution and that was apparent in how those countries had arrayed defensive military forces inside Mexico. No full consensus within the Intelligence Community had emerged but there was general agreement on most of this. Cuba had a corps of two divisions in Sonora, near to Hermosillo: those troops were positioned to blunt an invasion coming south out of Arizona. Around the city of Chihuahua – within the Mexican state named the same – there were between two and three divisions of Guatemalan & Nicaraguan troops there: ready to get in the way of an American advance coming southwards from New Mexico. Furthermore, another Cuban corps of three divisions was detected in the Saltillo-Monterrey area where they would be positioned ready to intercept an invasion out of Texas. This all made sense. This was what would be the best way to defend Mexico against an invasion. Mexican communist troops would be on the frontlines with those of their allies behind and ready to block a deeper penetration. Congratulations were passed around among those who made such judgements where they all agreed that they had correctly predicted what was planned by those over there in Mexico to bring to a stop an American invasion. They had figured it all out. The intelligence revision was passed upwards to the politicians: the professionals and the amateurs.

The maskirovka continued. The United States was being duped in what they were seeing but more so in how they perceived the intentions which they put on those foreign troops. The numbers were twice what was seen. Three field armies, not corps-level groupings, were present. There were Soviet forces in Mexico as well, in among the Cubans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans. Only four brigades were there – two motorised rifle formations (from Cuba) and a pair of airmobile brigades too (from the western parts of the Soviet Union) – yet those Soviet troops weren’t seen in places and elsewhere mis-identified as being from Latin America. The Americans didn’t see other Soviet forces too, those of a far more worrying nature. Small teams of Soviet Air Force personnel were in Mexico at multiple air-strips which would see the temporary use of Soviet combat aircraft when they arrived for a short period and then moved on elsewhere. Reconnaissance satellites and what was left of the field intelligence network of spies on the ground didn’t know about the fleet of huge trucks which had come in from ships into Veracruz and then disappeared deep into the Mexican interior into hidden positions in the mountains. There had been work done on the vehicle bodies to disguise them and make them not look like the weapons of war which they were. At Guaymas and at Tampico, the preparations around those ports weren’t recognised for what they were in the form of the readiness to make much more use of them soon enough.

There was a defensive mission in Mexico by those there to defend the revolution which had taken place but it wasn’t the defensive mission envisaged by the fools and political toadies to their north: the best defence was always offence instead and that was what those being gathered were in Mexico to do. Nonetheless, that couldn’t be fully done by those deployed into Mexico alone. They would need the assistance for their forward defence, their pre-emptive offensive mission, that would come from the further two field armies which were nearly complete over in Cuba and being readied to ship-out soon enough. Many more Soviet troops were waiting there, ready for the door to be kicked in ahead of them.

[lordroel]

Apr 26, 2018 18:47:43 GMT James G said:

(140)

Early September 1984:

There wasn’t an official suspension to Operation Avid Castle. However, there were no more air strikes taking place over Mexico. The Monterrey Government had wholly collapsed across the north & northeast while over in the northwest there remained those diplomatic difficulties with the Tijuana Government meaning that there was no cooperation on the ground. Fighter patrols of American aircraft were no longer being run above Mexican territory ready to protect the now missing strike aircraft. There were also only a few reconnaissance flights now taken place when before there had been many. US Air Force jets were covering the border regions (from inside the United States itself) and going down above Baja California but no further on intelligence-gathering and certainly not on the same scale as before. There was no longer any major fighting taking place apart from that in Baja California. It was there though in the first days of September, when the skies were almost clear of the Americans, that the pressure was really exerted on the Tijuana Government by Tirado López’s communists. In the south of the peninsula, the fighting moved to La Paz with that port city attacked from behind, the landward side, and soldiers fighting there for Tijuana unable to stop the city from being taken. Northwards, there came a major communist push from out of Sonora and towards the Mexicali Valley. The delta of the Colorado River stood in the way of that latter move: an opportune moment came for American air strikes to occur. Yet they didn’t. Washington wasn’t recognizing Tijuana and the diplomatic spat meant that the defenders on the ground weren’t given help from the skies. Whether American bombs would have been effective enough to stop the offensive which came was debatable but there they weren’t and into the top of Baja California came communist troops. The communists were on the march again, pushing westwards and unable to be stopped. Tijuana remained some distance away with mountainous terrain good for defence in the way but it was clear to most that the last days were coming of organised anti-communists resistance in Mexico.

At the White House, there was deep concern when it came to Mexico though not on where the fighting was taking place but instead when it came to Americans who remained inside Mexico now that Tirado López was on the cusp of final victory. In Mexico City there were those detained when captured fighting as volunteers for the defeated Northern Alliance; in Monterrey, there remained that embassy compound with the diplomats and military personnel surrounded in that city. The prisoners who were paraded for the cameras and called mercenaries & war criminals consisted of an assortment of people which the president had turned up his nose at when it came to them personally but made it clear that they were American citizens regardless of the views which they espoused and what they had gone to Mexico to do. He wouldn’t allow for them to be executed as Tirado López was threatening to do. The compound in Monterrey remained unmolested but surrounded with those inside reported to have been physically blocked from getting out of there by communist troops. This was an outrage, a clear breach of international law. Mexico City was the capital of Mexico, Tirado López had said, and those in Monterrey had been there working with an illegal secessionist regime. That was false and a lie to muddle the situation where accredited diplomats were being kept prisoner with weapons pointed at them and threats to shoot should they attempt to depart. Those who wanted the United States to take action against the communist regime pointed to both situations, two sets of hostages held in different circumstances, as justification for air attacks against Tirado López’s regime to recommence along with a movement of American troops into Mexico. The proponents of the latter had been long in their calls for this; there were demands to put troops into Baja California and to do so now. Kennedy refused to do so. He wouldn’t be drawn into doing that and was having Mondale work on a diplomatic solution to get every American out of Mexico who was being held there. He said so in a televised statement made to the American people though avoided any form of press conference or public meeting. The sex scandal he was facing with those revelations about his personal misdemeanors continued unabated; he was unable to bring that to a stop yet was committed to heading that off by bringing about ‘success’ elsewhere. That, unsurprisingly, was not regarded by anyone else as a winning strategy for November’s election.


Despite the lack of overflights by aircraft on tactical missions above Mexico, from where so much previous intelligence had been gathered, there was still an intelligence effort underway by the United States when it came to Mexico. The armed forces, the CIA and other intelligence agencies from the alphabet soup of organisations were busy collecting, collating and analysing information from many sources. However, political interference was everywhere with objectives that suited the careers of those at the top being more important that the national interest. People below were generally trying to do their jobs properly though there had been years now of this type of thing where the intelligence gathered was discarded if it didn’t fit the pre-set political thinking. Those who rebelled against this were pushed aside, slowly but effectively. What was observed in Mexico was now all taking place from afar as well, only adding to the dubious quality of understanding what was being seen in work environments which were unfriendly to those not saying the ‘right’ things.

Foreign troops were inside Mexico. That had been something denied at first but then a fact which had to be accepted as such in the end. The narrative became that there had always been foreign troops there in fact. Early September saw a revision of the intelligence picture on that put to the highest-levels of the United States Government. Cuban troops were inside Mexico alongside those of Guatemala and Nicaragua. None of these from elsewhere in Latin America were involved in the last of the fighting and were being held back in what were seen as defensive positions ready to respond to any American invasion of that country. From Havana, Guatemala City and Managua, there came the promises of defending the Mexican Revolution and that was apparent in how those countries had arrayed defensive military forces inside Mexico. No full consensus within the Intelligence Community had emerged but there was general agreement on most of this. Cuba had a corps of two divisions in Sonora, near to Hermosillo: those troops were positioned to blunt an invasion coming south out of Arizona. Around the city of Chihuahua – within the Mexican state named the same – there were between two and three divisions of Guatemalan & Nicaraguan troops there: ready to get in the way of an American advance coming southwards from New Mexico. Furthermore, another Cuban corps of three divisions was detected in the Saltillo-Monterrey area where they would be positioned ready to intercept an invasion out of Texas. This all made sense. This was what would be the best way to defend Mexico against an invasion. Mexican communist troops would be on the frontlines with those of their allies behind and ready to block a deeper penetration. Congratulations were passed around among those who made such judgements where they all agreed that they had correctly predicted what was planned by those over there in Mexico to bring to a stop an American invasion. They had figured it all out. The intelligence revision was passed upwards to the politicians: the professionals and the amateurs.

The maskirovka continued. The United States was being duped in what they were seeing but more so in how they perceived the intentions which they put on those foreign troops. The numbers were twice what was seen. Three field armies, not corps-level groupings, were present. There were Soviet forces in Mexico as well, in among the Cubans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans. Only four brigades were there – two motorised rifle formations (from Cuba) and a pair of airmobile brigades too (from the western parts of the Soviet Union) – yet those Soviet troops weren’t seen in places and elsewhere mis-identified as being from Latin America. The Americans didn’t see other Soviet forces too, those of a far more worrying nature. Small teams of Soviet Air Force personnel were in Mexico at multiple air-strips which would see the temporary use of Soviet combat aircraft when they arrived for a short period and then moved on elsewhere. Reconnaissance satellites and what was left of the field intelligence network of spies on the ground didn’t know about the fleet of huge trucks which had come in from ships into Veracruz and then disappeared deep into the Mexican interior into hidden positions in the mountains. There had been work done on the vehicle bodies to disguise them and make them not look like the weapons of war which they were. At Guaymas and at Tampico, the preparations around those ports weren’t recognised for what they were in the form of the readiness to make much more use of them soon enough.

There was a defensive mission in Mexico by those there to defend the revolution which had taken place but it wasn’t the defensive mission envisaged by the fools and political toadies to their north: the best defence was always offence instead and that was what those being gathered were in Mexico to do. Nonetheless, that couldn’t be fully done by those deployed into Mexico alone. They would need the assistance for their forward defence, their pre-emptive offensive mission, that would come from the further two field armies which were nearly complete over in Cuba and being readied to ship-out soon enough. Many more Soviet troops were waiting there, ready for the door to be kicked in ahead of them.

Wait so the Americans believe the troops inside Mexico are there to stop them from invading Mexico instead of the other way around.

[James G]

Apr 26, 2018 21:28:59 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 26, 2018 18:47:43 GMT James G said:

(140)

Early September 1984:

There wasn’t an official suspension to Operation Avid Castle. However, there were no more air strikes taking place over Mexico. The Monterrey Government had wholly collapsed across the north & northeast while over in the northwest there remained those diplomatic difficulties with the Tijuana Government meaning that there was no cooperation on the ground. Fighter patrols of American aircraft were no longer being run above Mexican territory ready to protect the now missing strike aircraft. There were also only a few reconnaissance flights now taken place when before there had been many. US Air Force jets were covering the border regions (from inside the United States itself) and going down above Baja California but no further on intelligence-gathering and certainly not on the same scale as before. There was no longer any major fighting taking place apart from that in Baja California. It was there though in the first days of September, when the skies were almost clear of the Americans, that the pressure was really exerted on the Tijuana Government by Tirado López’s communists. In the south of the peninsula, the fighting moved to La Paz with that port city attacked from behind, the landward side, and soldiers fighting there for Tijuana unable to stop the city from being taken. Northwards, there came a major communist push from out of Sonora and towards the Mexicali Valley. The delta of the Colorado River stood in the way of that latter move: an opportune moment came for American air strikes to occur. Yet they didn’t. Washington wasn’t recognizing Tijuana and the diplomatic spat meant that the defenders on the ground weren’t given help from the skies. Whether American bombs would have been effective enough to stop the offensive which came was debatable but there they weren’t and into the top of Baja California came communist troops. The communists were on the march again, pushing westwards and unable to be stopped. Tijuana remained some distance away with mountainous terrain good for defence in the way but it was clear to most that the last days were coming of organised anti-communists resistance in Mexico.

At the White House, there was deep concern when it came to Mexico though not on where the fighting was taking place but instead when it came to Americans who remained inside Mexico now that Tirado López was on the cusp of final victory. In Mexico City there were those detained when captured fighting as volunteers for the defeated Northern Alliance; in Monterrey, there remained that embassy compound with the diplomats and military personnel surrounded in that city. The prisoners who were paraded for the cameras and called mercenaries & war criminals consisted of an assortment of people which the president had turned up his nose at when it came to them personally but made it clear that they were American citizens regardless of the views which they espoused and what they had gone to Mexico to do. He wouldn’t allow for them to be executed as Tirado López was threatening to do. The compound in Monterrey remained unmolested but surrounded with those inside reported to have been physically blocked from getting out of there by communist troops. This was an outrage, a clear breach of international law. Mexico City was the capital of Mexico, Tirado López had said, and those in Monterrey had been there working with an illegal secessionist regime. That was false and a lie to muddle the situation where accredited diplomats were being kept prisoner with weapons pointed at them and threats to shoot should they attempt to depart. Those who wanted the United States to take action against the communist regime pointed to both situations, two sets of hostages held in different circumstances, as justification for air attacks against Tirado López’s regime to recommence along with a movement of American troops into Mexico. The proponents of the latter had been long in their calls for this; there were demands to put troops into Baja California and to do so now. Kennedy refused to do so. He wouldn’t be drawn into doing that and was having Mondale work on a diplomatic solution to get every American out of Mexico who was being held there. He said so in a televised statement made to the American people though avoided any form of press conference or public meeting. The sex scandal he was facing with those revelations about his personal misdemeanors continued unabated; he was unable to bring that to a stop yet was committed to heading that off by bringing about ‘success’ elsewhere. That, unsurprisingly, was not regarded by anyone else as a winning strategy for November’s election.


Despite the lack of overflights by aircraft on tactical missions above Mexico, from where so much previous intelligence had been gathered, there was still an intelligence effort underway by the United States when it came to Mexico. The armed forces, the CIA and other intelligence agencies from the alphabet soup of organisations were busy collecting, collating and analysing information from many sources. However, political interference was everywhere with objectives that suited the careers of those at the top being more important that the national interest. People below were generally trying to do their jobs properly though there had been years now of this type of thing where the intelligence gathered was discarded if it didn’t fit the pre-set political thinking. Those who rebelled against this were pushed aside, slowly but effectively. What was observed in Mexico was now all taking place from afar as well, only adding to the dubious quality of understanding what was being seen in work environments which were unfriendly to those not saying the ‘right’ things.

Foreign troops were inside Mexico. That had been something denied at first but then a fact which had to be accepted as such in the end. The narrative became that there had always been foreign troops there in fact. Early September saw a revision of the intelligence picture on that put to the highest-levels of the United States Government. Cuban troops were inside Mexico alongside those of Guatemala and Nicaragua. None of these from elsewhere in Latin America were involved in the last of the fighting and were being held back in what were seen as defensive positions ready to respond to any American invasion of that country. From Havana, Guatemala City and Managua, there came the promises of defending the Mexican Revolution and that was apparent in how those countries had arrayed defensive military forces inside Mexico. No full consensus within the Intelligence Community had emerged but there was general agreement on most of this. Cuba had a corps of two divisions in Sonora, near to Hermosillo: those troops were positioned to blunt an invasion coming south out of Arizona. Around the city of Chihuahua – within the Mexican state named the same – there were between two and three divisions of Guatemalan & Nicaraguan troops there: ready to get in the way of an American advance coming southwards from New Mexico. Furthermore, another Cuban corps of three divisions was detected in the Saltillo-Monterrey area where they would be positioned ready to intercept an invasion out of Texas. This all made sense. This was what would be the best way to defend Mexico against an invasion. Mexican communist troops would be on the frontlines with those of their allies behind and ready to block a deeper penetration. Congratulations were passed around among those who made such judgements where they all agreed that they had correctly predicted what was planned by those over there in Mexico to bring to a stop an American invasion. They had figured it all out. The intelligence revision was passed upwards to the politicians: the professionals and the amateurs.

The maskirovka continued. The United States was being duped in what they were seeing but more so in how they perceived the intentions which they put on those foreign troops. The numbers were twice what was seen. Three field armies, not corps-level groupings, were present. There were Soviet forces in Mexico as well, in among the Cubans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans. Only four brigades were there – two motorised rifle formations (from Cuba) and a pair of airmobile brigades too (from the western parts of the Soviet Union) – yet those Soviet troops weren’t seen in places and elsewhere mis-identified as being from Latin America. The Americans didn’t see other Soviet forces too, those of a far more worrying nature. Small teams of Soviet Air Force personnel were in Mexico at multiple air-strips which would see the temporary use of Soviet combat aircraft when they arrived for a short period and then moved on elsewhere. Reconnaissance satellites and what was left of the field intelligence network of spies on the ground didn’t know about the fleet of huge trucks which had come in from ships into Veracruz and then disappeared deep into the Mexican interior into hidden positions in the mountains. There had been work done on the vehicle bodies to disguise them and make them not look like the weapons of war which they were. At Guaymas and at Tampico, the preparations around those ports weren’t recognised for what they were in the form of the readiness to make much more use of them soon enough.

There was a defensive mission in Mexico by those there to defend the revolution which had taken place but it wasn’t the defensive mission envisaged by the fools and political toadies to their north: the best defence was always offence instead and that was what those being gathered were in Mexico to do. Nonetheless, that couldn’t be fully done by those deployed into Mexico alone. They would need the assistance for their forward defence, their pre-emptive offensive mission, that would come from the further two field armies which were nearly complete over in Cuba and being readied to ship-out soon enough. Many more Soviet troops were waiting there, ready for the door to be kicked in ahead of them.

Wait so the Americans believe the troops inside Mexico are there to stop them from invading Mexico instead of the other way around.

Yes, that makes sense to them. Half a dozen divisions spread out far back from the border along what look like invasion corridors running south. The talk from Latin America has long been of defending the Mexican Revolution. With a force like that, even in defence that is nothing to be concerned about.
That message of defence is sensible; the idea that they could attack is just plain silly.
It is actually double the strength and to be joined later on by Soviet forces.

[lordroel]

Apr 26, 2018 21:40:06 GMT James G said:

Apr 26, 2018 21:28:59 GMT lordroel said:

Wait so the Americans believe the troops inside Mexico are there to stop them from invading Mexico instead of the other way around.

Yes, that makes sense to them. Half a dozen divisions spread out far back from the border along what look like invasion corridors running south. The talk from Latin America has long been of defending the Mexican Revolution. With a force like that, even in defence that is nothing to be concerned about.
That message of defence is sensible; the idea that they could attack is just plain silly.
It is actually double the strength and to be joined later on by Soviet forces.

Found this, it is called The Sandinista Military Build-up, its about the Nicaragua armed forces from 1985, found it on this website called Inside the Cold War

[James G]

Apr 27, 2018 9:47:27 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 26, 2018 21:40:06 GMT James G said:

Yes, that makes sense to them. Half a dozen divisions spread out far back from the border along what look like invasion corridors running south. The talk from Latin America has long been of defending the Mexican Revolution. With a force like that, even in defence that is nothing to be concerned about.
That message of defence is sensible; the idea that they could attack is just plain silly.
It is actually double the strength and to be joined later on by Soviet forces.

Found this, it is called The Sandinista Military Build-up, its about the Nicaragua armed forces from 1985, found it on this website called Inside the Cold War

That was excellent. I read through it thinking 'done this, done this' with what I have in the story and seeing it was done in RL.
The army which Cuba has built for Nicaragua is far bigger than it was in RL but still the same basic idea of assistance from many countries to create a powerful force after a slow start.
Thanks for that.

[James G]

(141)

Early September 1984:

Every time that they struck, the North Koreans upped the ante. Nothing that South Korea nor the United States did to try to knock some sense into Kim Il-sung was working. He continued to send shells southwards in random artillery barrages up and down the DMZ while also having his commandos make attacks as well. With those special forces deployed into South Korea, they were cut down each time by an alerted defender whenever they struck. Still they were sent though – their lives were expendable – and each time they came unstuck in the end. Early September saw another big attempt to conduct an attack using these expendable men. Four big attacks were to be mounted using commando groups gathered together when on South Korean soil after entering the country in far smaller numbers. One South Korean political target was to be hit; three American military sites were also to come under armed assault. Nothing like this on such a scale had ever been tried before. It was very complicated in planning and a suicide mission for those involved for even if they achieved their aim, they were all destined to be killed or captured in the end.

South Korea’s president, General Chun Doo-hwan, was targeted for assassination at the hands of the first commando team. They raided his temporary residence at an army base outside of Seoul when he was sleeping; he hadn’t been at the Blue House for some time now. Almost forty North Koreans attacked with assault rifles, machine guns and RPGs. Some had satchel charges as well to help them blow their way in. A furious battle commenced with no quarter given by either side. The South Korean soldiers engaged were that country’s own special forces from a training school whom their president (and effective dictator) had brought in to protect him. Seventy-five deaths occurred before the shooting stopped including all but two of the North Korean attackers. As to the president, he escaped unharmed.

The trio of American bases which the North Koreans moved against the same night were Camp Red Cloud, Camp Sears and the Yongsan Garrison. The Camp Sears attack never got started with two incoming strike teams both engaged by South Korean heavily-armed patrols before they could get near there. Sudden, confusing random-chance occurrences in meeting left many dead, including South Korean civilians caught in the cross-fire. Camp Red Cloud and Yongsan were each hit with dozens of commandos assaulting both and attempting to hit the housing facilities at each rather than the military-focused infrastructure. Sentries had their throats cut and the alert guard forces saw their barracks blown with more satchel charges once infiltrators got inside. The sirens had sounded at each of the attacked sites ahead of each raid but it was a general alert. There had been many of those recently. The timing of the attack was deliberate the three o’clock in the morning, the hour when human beings were at their most tired. Still, despite everything seeming to work against the defenders, those who fought back did so really well. They had trained for this. The initial belief that this was yet another false alarm was shown to be force when the explosions started and the gunfire came. Yongsan’s defenders fought better those at Red Cloud. The North Koreans started to withdraw and those who got away were chased down as further American and South Korean forces, including armed helicopters (one of which was brought down with a missile though), converged upon the areas. Some captives were taken with North Korean prisoners grabbed but most were killed during the fighting. Hundreds were left dead and wounded in and around the US Army Korea facilities.


It was clear that North Korea was going to continue their attacks and they would get even bigger. President Chun told Kennedy this after those night-time attacks during an urgent trans-Pacific telephone call between them. Chun was not a popular man with the president yet the defence of South Korea in the face of North Korean hostility where Americans had already been killed before these attacks was something that the US president had committed himself to. Chun asked for more American troops. He told Washington that he was going to start fully-mobilising South Korea’s reserves because war was coming on the Korean Peninsula. He urged Kennedy to send more Americans than already had been deployed. The North Koreans still had that massive invasion army ready and waiting and soon enough it was going to move across the DMZ. It would be Seoul first where Kim’s tanks would go, then Pusan afterwards. Further American reinforcements would be needed to stop them from doing that. Maybe there was the chance, Chun added, that the reinforcement just might be enough to force Kim to back off. It hadn’t worked before, but maybe it might now.

Chun’s request caused another dispute over the worldwide deployments of American military forces at the top of the US Government. Once again, more were being moved out of the country and sent overseas. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to send the rest of the 7th Infantry Division, the remainder of the 1st Marine Division and that carrier held ready at San Diego. Bentsen disagreed with this plan of his subordinate’s and just wanted to send one, not two, brigades of US Army troops, none of the US Marines but to deploy the carrier. The Secretary of Defence’s say here was meant to carry more weight. That wasn’t the case though. Kennedy backed his general, putting him further at odds with Bentsen. The 7th Infantry Division and the carrier would start moving as soon as possible with the 1st Marine Division to follow soon enough. The president made sure with that order that there couldn’t be any possibility of any movement of US forces into Baja California even if he had completely reversed himself on that. He was also removing more and more fighting men from California weeks ahead of an incoming invasion.

[lordroel]

Apr 27, 2018 15:53:14 GMT James G said:

(141)

Early September 1984:

Every time that they struck, the North Koreans upped the ante. Nothing that South Korea nor the United States did to try to knock some sense into Kim Il-sung was working. He continued to send shells southwards in random artillery barrages up and down the DMZ while also having his commandos make attacks as well. With those special forces deployed into South Korea, they were cut down each time by an alerted defender whenever they struck. Still they were sent though – their lives were expendable – and each time they came unstuck in the end. Early September saw another big attempt to conduct an attack using these expendable men. Four big attacks were to be mounted using commando groups gathered together when on South Korean soil after entering the country in far smaller numbers. One South Korean political target was to be hit; three American military sites were also to come under armed assault. Nothing like this on such a scale had ever been tried before. It was very complicated in planning and a suicide mission for those involved for even if they achieved their aim, they were all destined to be killed or captured in the end.

South Korea’s president, General Chun Doo-hwan, was targeted for assassination at the hands of the first commando team. They raided his temporary residence at an army base outside of Seoul when he was sleeping; he hadn’t been at the Blue House for some time now. Almost forty North Koreans attacked with assault rifles, machine guns and RPGs. Some had satchel charges as well to help them blow their way in. A furious battle commenced with no quarter given by either side. The South Korean soldiers engaged were that country’s own special forces from a training school whom their president (and effective dictator) had brought in to protect him. Seventy-five deaths occurred before the shooting stopped including all but two of the North Korean attackers. As to the president, he escaped unharmed.

The trio of American bases which the North Koreans moved against the same night were Camp Red Cloud, Camp Sears and the Yongsan Garrison. The Camp Sears attack never got started with two incoming strike teams both engaged by South Korean heavily-armed patrols before they could get near there. Sudden, confusing random-chance occurrences in meeting left many dead, including South Korean civilians caught in the cross-fire. Camp Red Cloud and Yongsan were each hit with dozens of commandos assaulting both and attempting to hit the housing facilities at each rather than the military-focused infrastructure. Sentries had their throats cut and the alert guard forces saw their barracks blown with more satchel charges once infiltrators got inside. The sirens had sounded at each of the attacked sites ahead of each raid but it was a general alert. There had been many of those recently. The timing of the attack was deliberate the three o’clock in the morning, the hour when human beings were at their most tired. Still, despite everything seeming to work against the defenders, those who fought back did so really well. They had trained for this. The initial belief that this was yet another false alarm was shown to be force when the explosions started and the gunfire came. Yongsan’s defenders fought better those at Red Cloud. The North Koreans started to withdraw and those who got away were chased down as further American and South Korean forces, including armed helicopters (one of which was brought down with a missile though), converged upon the areas. Some captives were taken with North Korean prisoners grabbed but most were killed during the fighting. Hundreds were left dead and wounded in and around the US Army Korea facilities.


It was clear that North Korea was going to continue their attacks and they would get even bigger. President Chun told Kennedy this after those night-time attacks during an urgent trans-Pacific telephone call between them. Chun was not a popular man with the president yet the defence of South Korea in the face of North Korean hostility where Americans had already been killed before these attacks was something that the US president had committed himself to. Chun asked for more American troops. He told Washington that he was going to start fully-mobilising South Korea’s reserves because war was coming on the Korean Peninsula. He urged Kennedy to send more Americans than already had been deployed. The North Koreans still had that massive invasion army ready and waiting and soon enough it was going to move across the DMZ. It would be Seoul first where Kim’s tanks would go, then Pusan afterwards. Further American reinforcements would be needed to stop them from doing that. Maybe there was the chance, Chun added, that the reinforcement just might be enough to force Kim to back off. It hadn’t worked before, but maybe it might now.

Chun’s request caused another dispute over the worldwide deployments of American military forces at the top of the US Government. Once again, more were being moved out of the country and sent overseas. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to send the rest of the 7th Infantry Division, the remainder of the 1st Marine Division and that carrier held ready at San Diego. Bentsen disagreed with this plan of his subordinate’s and just wanted to send one, not two, brigades of US Army troops, none of the US Marines but to deploy the carrier. The Secretary of Defence’s say here was meant to carry more weight. That wasn’t the case though. Kennedy backed his general, putting him further at odds with Bentsen. The 7th Infantry Division and the carrier would start moving as soon as possible with the 1st Marine Division to follow soon enough. The president made sure with that order that there couldn’t be any possibility of any movement of US forces into Baja California even if he had completely reversed himself on that. He was also removing more and more fighting men from California weeks ahead of an incoming invasion.

So the war in the Korean peninsula that is not yet a full blow war is getting to be a full blown war while the United States is unwittingly opening the door for Soviet/Cuban invasion out of Mexico.

[lordbyron]

Oh, boy, Kennedy's playing right into their hands with these moves...

Waiting for more, and dreading the outbreak of war...

[James G]

Apr 27, 2018 16:24:37 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 27, 2018 15:53:14 GMT James G said:

(141)

Early September 1984:

Every time that they struck, the North Koreans upped the ante. Nothing that South Korea nor the United States did to try to knock some sense into Kim Il-sung was working. He continued to send shells southwards in random artillery barrages up and down the DMZ while also having his commandos make attacks as well. With those special forces deployed into South Korea, they were cut down each time by an alerted defender whenever they struck. Still they were sent though – their lives were expendable – and each time they came unstuck in the end. Early September saw another big attempt to conduct an attack using these expendable men. Four big attacks were to be mounted using commando groups gathered together when on South Korean soil after entering the country in far smaller numbers. One South Korean political target was to be hit; three American military sites were also to come under armed assault. Nothing like this on such a scale had ever been tried before. It was very complicated in planning and a suicide mission for those involved for even if they achieved their aim, they were all destined to be killed or captured in the end.

South Korea’s president, General Chun Doo-hwan, was targeted for assassination at the hands of the first commando team. They raided his temporary residence at an army base outside of Seoul when he was sleeping; he hadn’t been at the Blue House for some time now. Almost forty North Koreans attacked with assault rifles, machine guns and RPGs. Some had satchel charges as well to help them blow their way in. A furious battle commenced with no quarter given by either side. The South Korean soldiers engaged were that country’s own special forces from a training school whom their president (and effective dictator) had brought in to protect him. Seventy-five deaths occurred before the shooting stopped including all but two of the North Korean attackers. As to the president, he escaped unharmed.

The trio of American bases which the North Koreans moved against the same night were Camp Red Cloud, Camp Sears and the Yongsan Garrison. The Camp Sears attack never got started with two incoming strike teams both engaged by South Korean heavily-armed patrols before they could get near there. Sudden, confusing random-chance occurrences in meeting left many dead, including South Korean civilians caught in the cross-fire. Camp Red Cloud and Yongsan were each hit with dozens of commandos assaulting both and attempting to hit the housing facilities at each rather than the military-focused infrastructure. Sentries had their throats cut and the alert guard forces saw their barracks blown with more satchel charges once infiltrators got inside. The sirens had sounded at each of the attacked sites ahead of each raid but it was a general alert. There had been many of those recently. The timing of the attack was deliberate the three o’clock in the morning, the hour when human beings were at their most tired. Still, despite everything seeming to work against the defenders, those who fought back did so really well. They had trained for this. The initial belief that this was yet another false alarm was shown to be force when the explosions started and the gunfire came. Yongsan’s defenders fought better those at Red Cloud. The North Koreans started to withdraw and those who got away were chased down as further American and South Korean forces, including armed helicopters (one of which was brought down with a missile though), converged upon the areas. Some captives were taken with North Korean prisoners grabbed but most were killed during the fighting. Hundreds were left dead and wounded in and around the US Army Korea facilities.


It was clear that North Korea was going to continue their attacks and they would get even bigger. President Chun told Kennedy this after those night-time attacks during an urgent trans-Pacific telephone call between them. Chun was not a popular man with the president yet the defence of South Korea in the face of North Korean hostility where Americans had already been killed before these attacks was something that the US president had committed himself to. Chun asked for more American troops. He told Washington that he was going to start fully-mobilising South Korea’s reserves because war was coming on the Korean Peninsula. He urged Kennedy to send more Americans than already had been deployed. The North Koreans still had that massive invasion army ready and waiting and soon enough it was going to move across the DMZ. It would be Seoul first where Kim’s tanks would go, then Pusan afterwards. Further American reinforcements would be needed to stop them from doing that. Maybe there was the chance, Chun added, that the reinforcement just might be enough to force Kim to back off. It hadn’t worked before, but maybe it might now.

Chun’s request caused another dispute over the worldwide deployments of American military forces at the top of the US Government. Once again, more were being moved out of the country and sent overseas. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to send the rest of the 7th Infantry Division, the remainder of the 1st Marine Division and that carrier held ready at San Diego. Bentsen disagreed with this plan of his subordinate’s and just wanted to send one, not two, brigades of US Army troops, none of the US Marines but to deploy the carrier. The Secretary of Defence’s say here was meant to carry more weight. That wasn’t the case though. Kennedy backed his general, putting him further at odds with Bentsen. The 7th Infantry Division and the carrier would start moving as soon as possible with the 1st Marine Division to follow soon enough. The president made sure with that order that there couldn’t be any possibility of any movement of US forces into Baja California even if he had completely reversed himself on that. He was also removing more and more fighting men from California weeks ahead of an incoming invasion.

So the war in the Korean peninsula that is not yet a full blow war is getting to be a full blown war while the United States is unwittingly opening the door for Soviet/Cuban invasion out of Mexico.

That's the way things are going. There are other regions of tension as well though.

Apr 27, 2018 17:53:11 GMT lordbyron said:

Oh, boy, Kennedy's playing right into their hands with these moves...

Waiting for more, and dreading the outbreak of war...

There is more to the Kennedy saga before the end of peace.
Oh, and, with regards to the war, that is coming very very soon now. You read the first go round; this will be similar but different too. It will be bad.