Seeing Off the Bear

Professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, this U.S. Air Force (USAF) publication examines the subject of Anglo-American air power cooperation during the cold war, presenting material from a major symposium, sponsored by the Air Force Historical Foundation and the Royal Air Force Historical Society, working in close association with the U.S. Air Force History and Museums Program and the RAF Air Historical Branch.

The challenge for the symposium's organizers was to strike a balance between scholarly monographs and first-person remembrances, and to include as many of the significant episodes of the Cold War that time allowed. As a result, the panelists addressed an impressive number of important topics and major developments during this critical period in the history of both nations.

Perhaps nowhere was the special relationship more visible or significant than in the activities of the airmen and air forces of the two nations. The symposium was a meeting of old friends, some of whose associations dated from World War II. Many of the attendees, as well as participants, experienced some of the most important and dangerous episodes of the Cold War in close association with their opposite numbers in the Royal Air Force or U.S. Air Force. The symposium vividly demonstrated the enduring nature of the singular, close relationship that the USAF and RAF share.

Introduction and Welcome * General Bryce Poe II; Air Marshal Sir Frederick Sowrey * Opening Address * General Merrill A. McPeak * Session One: Policy Decisions * Chair: General Bryce Poe II * Introduction * An Initial Response to the Cold War: The Buildup of the U.S. Air Force in the United Kingdom, 1948-1956 * Patrick E. Murray * The Role of Missiles in British Concepts of Defence: The Influence of Duncan Sandys * Cecil James * Cooperation at the Top: A View from a Former Vice Chief of the Air Staff and CINCUKAIR Air Chief Marshal Sir Denis Smallwood * The Deployment of Ground-Launched Cruise Missiles to RAF Greenham Common * Lieutenant Colonel Michael A. Kirtland * Questions and Answers * Luncheon Address * Air Vice Marshal Ron Dick * Session Two: Acquisition * Chair: General Robert T. Marsh * Introduction * RAF Aircraft Procurement, 1950-1965: The American Involvement * Robert Jackson * The Transfer of B-29s to the Royal Air Force Under the Military Defense Assistance Program * William W. Suit * The Origins of the Skybolt Controversy in the Eisenhower Administration * Ronald D. Landa * Questions and Answers * Banquet Address * General Charles A. Horner * Pictorial * Notable Anglo-American Aircraft of the Cold War * Session Three: Crisis Response * Chair: Air Marshal Sir Frederick Sowrey * Introduction * Operation Firedog: Air Support in the Malayan Emergency * Malcolm Postgate * The Anglo-American Origins of Overflying the Soviet Union: The Case of the "Invisible Aircraft" * Donald E. Welzenbach * Anglo-American Air Force Collaboration and the Cuban Missile Crisis: A British Perspective * Stephen Twigge * Further Comments on Command and Control of British Nuclear Forces During the Cuban Missile Crisis * Group Captain Ian Madelin * El Dorado Canyon: The Political and Public Affairs Aftermath * Chief Master Sergeant Jerome E. Schroeder * Some Additional Comments on Crisis Response During the Falklands War * Air Marshal Sir John Curtiss * Questions and Answers * Closing Comments * Air Marshal Sir Frederick Sowrey; General Bryce Poe II