America and China try to prevent military mishaps and miscalculations
The original cold war holds some lessons
On may 25th 1968, a Soviet Tu-16 bomber made several low fly-bys perilously close to the uss Essex, an American warship in the Norwegian Sea. On its final pass, the Soviet plane clipped a wave and crashed into the sea, killing the entire crew. It was one of the deadliest in a string of close encounters between American and Soviet forces that led in 1972 to the Incidents at Sea (incsea) Agreement, establishing protocols for the two sides’ ships and planes to interact safely in peacetime.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “In need of guardrails”
China June 18th 2022
From the June 18th 2022 edition
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