Not espionage.. Article in the Washington Post: Perhaps this is the real goal of the Chinese balloon

The Washington Post published two articles on the issue of the Chinese airship over Montana.

The first article made a comparison between one of the crises of the American spy planes on the former Soviet Union in the sixties, and the other article suggested that the purpose of sending the Chinese airship might be something other than espionage.

The author

Richard Aldous, says that the echoes of the Cold War, which lasted from the end of World War II until the end of the eighties, are now spread everywhere, adding that the story of the Chinese airship brings to mind the U-2 spy plane crisis in 1960, when the Soviet Union shot down that plane. This led to the abortion of an American-Soviet summit meeting that was scheduled between leaders Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev in Paris.

Unforeseen events damage diplomacy

Unexpected events, he said, could ruin years of diplomatic effort, and the Chinese are likely now scrambling in panic to tell their story.

He added that the two parties, America and the Soviet Union, both knew that that plane had been flying over Soviet territory since the mid-1950s, and when NASA issued a statement saying that it was a weather plane that had deviated from its course, the Soviets triumphantly displayed parts of the wreckage, and the summit between the presidents was canceled. In the two countries, Eisenhower's hopes for a Cold War détente were dashed at the end of his presidency.

Aldous commented that the current US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's decision to postpone his trip to China means that he did not take the Khrushchev route, and in a carbon copy of NASA's statement during the U-2 crisis, Beijing now said that the balloon that was flying over Montana had been used for weather research, and deviated off track.

The personal responsibility of the president

Chinese President Xi Jinping now faces the same unpalatable choice that Eisenhower did: to take personal responsibility for this act of espionage, Aldous said. Suggesting that a war could start without the president's knowledge."

The writer pointed out that Eisenhower admitted without apology and said: "From the beginning of my administration, I have issued directives to collect - in every possible way - the information required to protect the United States and the free world from sudden attack and to enable them to make effective preparations for defense." He also admitted that such measures were "a necessity." Disgusting but vital."

The writer stated that historians praised Eisenhower for his integrity in assuming personal responsibility at a dangerous moment, and added that former US President John F. Kennedy concluded, after the missile crisis, that it was important to be able to speak directly to Khrushchev personally, day or night.

Aldous concluded his article by saying that Blinken will not travel now, but it may be time for President Joe Biden or President Xi Jinping to pick up the phone to prevent events from escalating.

The airship is not alone

As for the author

, Arthur Holland Michel, he says that the Chinese airship will not be the only one watching America from its skies, adding that if it was for espionage, as the Pentagon claims, then logic says that it should have taken careful measures to hide, then it is a giant balloon.

And if we add - the writer says - what US officials said on Thursday that the balloon will not reach new information that China could not access by other means, it is likely that it was sent specifically for the purpose of seeing it, as it captured something valuable, which is our attention, and this makes The incident taught an important lesson about both the power and the increasing reach of air surveillance technology.

Psychological effect

The writer believes that the purpose of sending the balloon is the psychological effect on the American people, as there is humiliation and there is arousing a collective sense of insecurity, which was penetrated by a bag of gas whose speed does not exceed the speed of strong winds.

The writer also notes that a decade ago, most places on Earth were seen by satellites only every few days or weeks, but now, it may not pass more than a few hours since something took a picture above our heads.