The Bombs of Palomares

New York: Viking Press, 1967. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. ix, 274 pages. map (on lining papers) 22 cm. Bibliography. Name of previous owner present. Small tear to rep. Tadeusz Witold Szulc (July 25, 1926 - May 21, 2001) was an author and foreign correspondent for The New York Times from 1953 to 1972. Szulc is credited with breaking the story of the Bay of Pigs invasion. From 1953 to 1972, Szulc was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. On April 6, 1961, nine days before the CIA-supported Bay of Pigs invasion, Szulc wrote a Times article stating that an invasion of Cuba was "imminent." W Joseph Campell as disproved the legend that President John F. Kennedy personally telephoned the Times publisher to spike the story. The Times actually reduced the coverage in prominence and detail, but the article was still on the front page. Szulc's interest in Cuba continued over time, and he published an in-depth biography of Fidel Castro. In 1968, Szulc was a reporter in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet invasion against the Prague Spring. Szulc has also written articles regarding Latin America for several other publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, Penthouse, National Geographic, and The Progressive. The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, or the Palomares incident, occurred on 17 January 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. Of the four Mk28-type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 2½-month-long search.