The Target Is Destroyed

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The Soviet destruction in 9/1983 of 269 people aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was one of the most upsetting crises of the Cold War era. The USA & USSR immediately blamed one another for the disaster; but, as Hersh powerfully argues, responsibility went far beyond ordinary governmental decision making & into the murky sphere of superpower intelligence calculations & confusion. He asserts that the catastrophe followed more from Soviet ignorance than viciousness, & that the whole episode demonstrates how the superpowers are more interested in gaining political advantage than the truest understanding of events. Hersh cannot provide a final recounting of this complex crisis. But he does show how one critical thinker can provide a more believable reconstruction of events than can any self-interested governmental regime.-- Library Journal