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Vela Incident: South Atlantic Mystery Flash in September 1979 Raised Questions about Nuclear Test
William (ed.) Burr, Avner (ed.) Cohen, 2016. National Security Archive and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, posted 8 December 2016.
Newly declassified documents from the files of Ambassador Gerard C. Smith: an October 1979 CIA-sponsored panel finding the signals "consistent with" a nuclear explosion, DIA official Jack Varona's description of the White House report as a "whitewash", Richard Garwin's 19 October 1979 letter betting 2 to 1 on a nuclear explosion (he later changed his view), State Department records of NRL hydroacoustic findings pointing to the Prince Edward Islands, and New Zealand rainwater data dismissed as a false alarm.
What it's used for here
The 2016 declassifications and the editors' account.
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Research copy, for editors and curators. The work is the publisher's, so readers are sent to it. We keep this copy so the citation can be checked if the page changes or goes.
nsarchive.gwu.edu · fetched 28 Oct 2026
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Cite it
Burr, W. (., & Cohen, A. (. (2016). Vela Incident: South Atlantic Mystery Flash in September 1979 Raised Questions about Nuclear Test. National Security Archive and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, posted 8 December 2016. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-12-06/vela-incident-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-september-1979-raised-questions-about-nuclear-test
@misc{burr2016new,
author = {Burr, William (ed.) and Cohen, Avner (ed.)},
title = {Vela Incident: South Atlantic Mystery Flash in September 1979 Raised Questions about Nuclear Test},
howpublished = {National Security Archive and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, posted 8 December 2016},
year = {2016},
url = {https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-12-06/vela-incident-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-september-1979-raised-questions-about-nuclear-test}
}TY - ELEC TI - Vela Incident: South Atlantic Mystery Flash in September 1979 Raised Questions about Nuclear Test AU - Burr, William (ed.) AU - Cohen, Avner (ed.) PY - 2016 JO - National Security Archive and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, posted 8 December 2016 UR - https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-12-06/vela-incident-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-september-1979-raised-questions-about-nuclear-test ER -
Burr, William (ed.) and Avner (ed.) Cohen. “Vela Incident: South Atlantic Mystery Flash in September 1979 Raised Questions about Nuclear Test.” National Security Archive and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, posted 8 December 2016 (2016).