Chapter 204
Chapter 204
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Middle East Crisis (2)
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Moscow was delighted by the Arab Federation's overtures.
"Cuba has damaged the Federation's prestige. It would be wise to expand our influence in the Middle East and regain our standing."
"True enough. If we embed our forces in the Middle East this time, it'll make the Americans break out in a cold sweat."
Taking the Soviet Politburo's advice, Khrushchev decided to extend a hand to the Arabs.
His pride wounded by the retreat in Cuba, Khrushchev had no intention of backing down this time.
"Moscow says they're going to support us."
The Arab states were pleased to hear about Soviet backing.
Moscow signed a contract handing over massive quantities of tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, helicopters, fighters, and more to the Arab Federation delegation.
"The reds are teaming up with the Arabs?"
For Israel, this was an unforeseen variable.
As soon as Israel confirmed the growing closeness between the Soviets and the Arabs, it rushed straight to Washington.
"Look at that. Those Arab reds have finally shown their true colors."
"The Arabs have joined hands with the reds?"
The U.S. was skeptical upon hearing the news.
Then it remembered the Suez Canal and was horrified.
"Does that mean the reds can now reach the Suez?"
Even though half of it was in Israel's hands, the fact that the reds were reaching for even the other half was a problem.
"So you have to help us."
Up until the Stevenson administration, the U.S. had maintained a position of providing minimal support to Israel.
But once bloc logic kicked in, America's options were limited.
"Aid Israel."
"Aid to Israel? You planning to make enemies of us?"
The pro-U.S. Arab states in the Middle East immediately expressed their displeasure.
"Weren't those guys our allies?"
"They're pro-U.S., but also anti-Israel friends."
Within the U.S. government, there was fierce debate between those saying Israel shouldn't be bolstered and those insisting on backing their ally Israel.
After weighing both sides, Goldwater decided to side with Israel, backed by the Jewish lobby.
"Ignore the Arab backlash."
The pro-U.S. Arab states couldn't maintain their monarchies without U.S. support against the reds or extremists anyway.
What could they do if America came down hard?
"There will be considerable backlash."
"We'll have to endure it for now. What choice do we have?"
Better to face some backlash than watch the reds take the Suez Canal.
With America openly backing Israel, a clear confrontation took shape in the Middle East.
It was the U.S.-supported Israel versus the Soviet-backed Arab Federation.
The scary part was that both sides, as proxies in this war, were ready to go to war at any moment.
"You Israeli bastards. We'll pay this debt back for sure."
"Bring it on for another round if war's on the table. You think we're scared?"
Thus began the Middle East crisis, pregnant with the possibility of nuclear war.
*
With the Arabs siding with the Soviets, the picture shifted in a strange way.
The proxy war lines were now clear: U.S.-Israel versus Soviet-Arab Federation.
What made it terrifying was Israel's nukes.
If Israel ever used nukes on the Arabs, who would retaliate for the nuke-less Arabs?
The Soviets.
And would America just sit idly by?
It would be an escalator straight to doom.
'The lines have gotten headache-inducing.'
Of course, this powder keg wouldn't explode right away.
The Arabs, battered in this war, needed considerable time to regroup.
Even if they did regroup, breaching Israel's natural defensive lines wouldn't be easy.
'And America won't just stand by and watch.'
It was unlikely to draw much attention to nukes under normal circumstances.
That was the thinking, but things could always go sideways.
The biggest wild card was U.S. President Goldwater.
With a guy who'd no-holds-barred Cuba, how could anyone assume things would proceed rationally?
The best course seemed to be resolving this before it ignited.
'I need to show them the possibility of mutual destruction with America to make Goldwater tread carefully.'
Unable to organize his thoughts, he decided to cool his head with a card game against Jeong Gil.
But he kept losing to Jeong Gil in number games.
"You're too good at this, aren't you?"
"Your Excellency just isn't skilled at cheating."
Me, bad at cheating?
It was absurd.
As he was about to hand over crumpled bills to Jeong Gil, a sudden thought struck him, and he slapped his knee.
"There was cheating. That's it exactly."
"Pardon?"
He immediately ordered Intelligence Minister Kang Su-cheol to come to the Prime Minister's residence.
"You summoned me."
He explained the idea that had just come to him to the Intelligence Minister.
"You're saying to leak fake info to America inflating the specs of Soviet missiles?"
"That's right."
He planned to make Washington believe the Soviets had ICBMs.
The Sputnik shock was coming soon anyway, making it the perfect time to scare them.
"We'll need advice from the Korea Aerospace Technology Research Institute to inflate the specs properly."
"Handle that through Intelligence."
He didn't stop at having Intelligence leak fake missile info.
He also had them leak that the Soviets were preparing an artificial satellite.
America reacted with disbelief to news of the Soviets preparing a satellite.
"How could the reds do what we can't? They're barely out of a poor agrarian society."
Their thinking would change in a few months.
From then on, they'd be frantic about not overestimating the Soviets enough.
He figured this would roughly solve the problem.
"Isn't the Suez Canal issue still pending?"
Ah.
With the Israeli military occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Suez Canal—one of the world's three great waterways—had become unusable.
This was creating headaches for Korea's exports to Europe.
Since the end of the Italian War, Korean shipping companies had relied on the Suez; now they had to detour around the Cape of Good Hope.
It was hard to expect a quick resolution.
Israel had no intention of relinquishing the Sinai on its own.
From Israel's perspective, the Suez wasn't just a passageway—it was a shield protecting the nation.
How could they give that up?
He had no intention of mediating this issue from the start.
"It doesn't seem like it'll resolve in a year or two, so support larger merchant ships. Make them to the specs that can carry containers, like what they use in America."
Launching supersized ships could offset the increased transport costs.
"Provide policy financing too."
As the saying went, crisis breeds opportunity.
It might not be a bad idea to use this to upscale Korean shipping fleets and compete on freight rates with Western companies.
"Understood."
This was how they'd handle the Middle East crisis for now.
It was ambiguous to take further measures immediately anyway.
He decided to watch developments and act accordingly.
Exactly two months later, in October 1957, the Soviets launched an artificial satellite.
It was the start of the Sputnik shock that plunged America into dismay.
"What? The Soviets launched a satellite we can't even shoot?"
America was stunned upon learning the fact.
Then they came running to us, asking if the intelligence they'd received so far was real.
"That's what we've confirmed."
Washington's attitude shifted the moment they confirmed the entire U.S. East Coast was within ICBM range.
Goldwater's voice, which had been clashing with the Soviets as if no compromise with the reds was possible, suddenly quieted.
'Nukes do make people humble, after all.'
Once the fear of dying to nukes hit home, hardline stances naturally softened.
That was the trend in actual U.S. public opinion.
Goldwater was still acting tough, but American public sentiment was voicing concerns over the administration's hardline stance of going all the way with the Soviets.
"The red nukes could drop on our heads too? Is pushing it to the end with them really right?"
Even within the U.S. government, voices rose saying they shouldn't drag the confrontation with Moscow to an irreconcilable level.
'This atmosphere is great.'
While watching Americans tremble in fear, we decided to deliver one more shock.
"Launch a test ICBM."
It wasn't a fully completed missile, but a gesture to show off our technological prowess.
If Korea had something like this, imagine what the Soviets had.
That was the message he wanted to send America.
On November 6, 1957, a missile launched from Jeju Island crossed the Japanese archipelago and splashed down in the North Pacific.
We openly flaunted this test launch to neighboring countries.
America was shocked once more by our missile launch.
"Korea has missiles like that, and what have we been doing?"
The U.S. Congress immediately erupted over the issue.
He figured America wouldn't openly clash with the Soviets until they were confident in their own missile forces.
"With things turning out like this, Goldwater will stay quiet for a while. No matter how tough he is, can he talk war when the American public is openly anxious?"
That was his thinking.
But they couldn't rely solely on the false info we'd planted.
America had the latest ultra-high-altitude recon plane, the U-2, and the CIA to verify intelligence.
So he subtly tipped off the Soviets about the U-2 entering mass production in 1957.
Coincidentally, the S-75 SAM capable of shooting down the U-2 was also completed that year.
If the Soviets blanketed key areas with S-75s, they could sufficiently disrupt U-2 recon.
Disrupted recon meant delayed U.S. verification.
He hoped to buy just a few years that way.
Until the Soviets achieved mutual assured destruction.
He asked for nothing more.