Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 02:09 PM 2/25/04 -0500, B. D. Colen wrote: > >On the other hand, why do I doubt that Hanoi could reach a given unit in >time with information gathered from monitoring CBS evening news >broadcasts - assuming that they were sitting in the U.S. watching them? >Remember, we're not talking about CNN and broadcasts beamed 'round the >Globe. BD Great to be in touch with you again, of course. The Soviet Embassy and the Chinese Interest Section of the era monitored all US broadcasts and immediately sent their analysis of broadcasts home (precisely as the US and UK and German and so forth embassies and delegations in Moscow and Peking did, as well) Radio transmissions from Hanoi to the RVN took less than a tenth of a second. That is, a Soviet analyst reads the news in real time, at, say, 7:30 PM on a Sunday night (which would be around 8:30 AM in Viet-Nam). By 8:00, his analysis has been sent to the Soviets, by 8:30, they have sent this on to Hanoi, and by 9:00 PM US time (10:00 AM Viet-Nam time) the information had been forwarded to the tactical units of the DRVA in the RVN. The US military would do this in a lot less time, but I am accomodating the difficulties required for translation in the COMECON loop (English to Russian to Vietnamese, while the US has always insisted on all-English transmissions.) Thus, the Bad Guys would have known of US plans before noon, with plenty of time to respond. Marc msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html