Clear as a Picture

The Soviets announced in July that they would open a new round of nuclear tests on Aug. 5 in the Arctic testing ground of Novaya Zemlya. Before that, the last reported Russian blast took place in November 1961. It was with more than passing curiosity, therefore, that Western correspondents in Moscow last week came upon a photograph that appeared in the military newspaper Red Star on Aug. 3--two days before the new series began. It showed Russian tanks lumbering across a rolling landscape; there in the background was the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion. The caption said the picture was taken "during recent war games."

Was this a Soviet bomb blast that the West had not detected or announced? And one set off with manned tanks dangerously near? Probably not. Closer examination of the photograph suggested an entirely different explanation: the mushroom cloud seemed simply to have been painted or superimposed onto a picture of routine tank maneuvers. If so, Red Star's caption writer is clearly a man of imagination. His dramatic description of the scene began, "A mighty atom explosion neutralized the resistance of the enemy. Tank units moved swiftly forward at highest speed carrying out the orders of the commanders."

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