Abstract
On January 17, 1966, a U.S. B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker plane while refueling, causing both planes and four unarmed hydrogen bombs to fall near the Spanish village of Palomares. The conventional explosives in two of the bombs detonated causing radioactive plutonium to be spread over the village, and one bomb was missing in the Mediterranean Sea for nearly eighty days. The accident strained the already controversial relations with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s regime, and renewed criticism both in the United States and Spain of the U.S. maintenance of military bases on Spanish territory. This thesis examines the reasoning of the U.S. government in continuing a program of flying nuclear armed bombers over its allies despite the serious foreign relations fallout that resulted from the Palomares accident.
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