Word: commandant
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...near a Soviet-built and Soviet-run electronics information-gathering installation. Because the brigade's areas have been declared strictly off-limits for Cubans, it has been very difficult for the U.S. to slip in spies to gather intelligence on the spot. The brigade has a totally separate command from the Soviet advisers who have been located in Cuba since the early 1960s. Washington has long known about and accepted the fact that Cuba plays host to an estimated 2,000 Soviet military advisers, plus about 50 pilots who have been flying defense patrols for the Cuban air force...
Despite all the electronic wizardry, human snooping is still needed to fill in gaps. But the task of infiltration is formidable in a tightly controlled garrison state like Cuba, where local security forces are reinforced by Soviet ones. Not even Cubans are allowed to go near the Soviet command post, east of Havana...
Last spring U.S. intelligence pressed harder to find out more about the Soviet command post. Though Soviet combat troops had not been sighted, part of the intelligence community felt that the headquarters signified their presence. In mid-July increased reconnaissance finally revealed the troops. They were in Soviet uniform and were operating Soviet equipment, but were they Soviets or Cubans? Satellites were sent in for a closer look. This time the photos revealed that the troops were indeed Soviets...
...Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of the Central Intelligence Agency onto a conference call in the 15 minutes that he has to make a decision, much less issue an order that then travels down the line of command in the 15 minutes. So the only way is by delegating the authority down to some field commander, who must be given the discretion that when he thinks a nuclear war has started, he can retaliate. Is that the world we want to live in? Is that what assured destruction will finally...
Other changes have also helped to take the bite out of union demands. Chafin has improved internal communication through a new organizational structure and monthly plenary staff meetings. Though the chain of command structure still remains in place, complaints do, on the whole, manage to filter to the top. For example, late May, a group of women within the department complained that they were not being treated professionally by the overwhelmingly male force. Chafin says he held a meeting with a core group of the staff to correct the situation immediately because, he says, "I thought it was an extremely...