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The Hondoras Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Greater German Reich, Hondoras, and the Empire of Japan during the Cold War. In Germany, it is termed the "Yucatan Crisis," while in Hondoras it is called the "September Crisis." The crisis ranks as one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to a nuclear war.


Discovery of the Missile Sites[]

The crisis began on September 7th 1970 when United States reconnaissance photographs taken by an American U-4 spy plane revealed missile bases being built in Hondoras. The German missiles launched from that site could hit every member of the ATO Alliance.

Drafting the response[]

Rumsfield saw the photographs on September 14; he assembled the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm), twelve key officials, at 9.00 AM. The U.S. had no plan for dealing with such a threat, because U.S. intelligence was convinced the Germans would not install nuclear missiles in Honduras. The EXCOM quickly discussed three courses of military action: 1. an air attack on the missiles 2. a full military invasion 3. the naval blockade of Honduras, which was redefined as a more restrictive quarantine. Unanimously, the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed that a full-scale attack and invasion was the only solution. They agreed that the Germans would not act to stop the U.S. from conquering Honduras; Rumsfield was skeptical, saying:

"They, no more than we, can let these things go by without doing something. They can't, after all their statements, permit us to take out their missiles, kill a lot of Hondurans, and then do nothing. If they don't take action in Honduras, they certainly will elsewhere."

He went on to say:

"This is not as if we are going up against the Japanese, or even the Russians, had they survived the German armies. they would have some sanity, and know when to back down. the Germans would rather see the whole world go up in smoke, and we must take this into consideration."

Countdown on the Nuclear clock[]

On the morning of September 19th, a Lockheed U-4 had departed the U-4 forward operating location at McCoy AFB, Florida. At approximately 11:07pm Eastern Standard Time, the aircraft was shot down by an Rheinboote II SAM emplacement in Honduras, increasing the stress in negotiations between the Greater German Reich and the U.S. It was later learned that the decision to fire was made locally by an undetermined Honduran commander on his own authority. Later that day, at about 3:31 p.m., several U.S. Navy RF-11C reconnaissance aircraft on low-level photoreconnaissance missions were fired upon, and one was hit by a 37 mm shell but managed to return to base.

German Long range bonber formations were alerted and patrols almost tripled over the Atlantic. Several times American and German escort fighters buzzed each other, but fortunately no accidents took place.

The situation was so serious even Der Sturmer warned that: "If a war were to break out, the consequences would be catastrophic, not just for America, but for the Reich and the whole world. The master race we may be, but we certainly will not commit suicide to prove it."

Ending the crisis[]

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