Shootdown : The Verdict of KAL 007 by Johnson, R W - 1986

London, UK: BCA, 1986. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 5.25" x 8. H/B 335 pages, condition is very good. In the early hours of 1 September 1983 a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet fighter and plunged into the Sea of Japan with the loss of all its 269 passengers and crew. Reactions around the world were of horror and indignation, and the second Cold War passed into a yet more frigid phase. The Reagan Administration energetically propagated the view that KAL 007 had somehow drifted fatally off course as a result of an unforeseen human or technical error- a view which was, at the time, widely accepted. As time has gone by, however, doubts have grown as to whether this explanation could possibly be true. If not, the credibility of the Reagan Administration's entire Cold War stance is in doubt- which is why the mystery of KAL 007 remains as live and critical an issue as when it was first shot down. The Oxford political scientist, R. W. Johnson, has studied the case in unprecedented depth, and in this compelling and disturbing book he sets the story in its international and political context, and makes sense, for the first time, of the often bizarre theories which have grown up around the tragedy. At last, with this book, it is possible to reach a final verdict on the mystery of KAL 007.