During the 1965 Cold War, China tested an atomic bomb. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once wanted to spy on the Chinese-made missile. However, the intelligence agency used a nuclear-powered antenna, which was placed over the high point of Nanda Devi, considered India’s second-highest peak, from where the country’s border was mapped.
Indian and American climbers were prepared with their cargo, an antenna, cables and a 13 kg generator called the SNAP-19C. Inside it contained plutonium, a heavy radioactive metal widely found in nuclear arms. The radioactive metal is also used as a heat source to eliminate deep space probes, formed after reacting with uranium.
A snowstorm that took away the nuclear device
A report by The New York Times revealed that when the climbers were ready to move ahead, a snowstorm disrupted their move, and it covered the Nanda Devi peak.
Captain MS Kohli, an Indian officer who was leading this mission, terrified of the snowstorm, swiftly grabbed the radio and signalled, “Camp Four, this is Advance Base. Can you hear me? … Come back quickly… don’t waste a single minute. Secure the equipment. Don’t bring it down.”
In an adverse situation, the climbers hid the equipment somewhere on the icy ledge near Camp Four and ran away to save their lives. What they left behind was a nuclear device containing nearly a third of the plutonium used in the making of the Nagasaki bomb by the US. After the blizzard, the nuclear device was never recovered or seen by anybody.
The US never openly acknowledged the top-secret mission
Unofficially, the United States never openly acknowledged the mission of Nanda Devi. On the records, the situation was placed as if nothing ever happened.
You won’t believe, the idea for the mission was initially formed over a cocktail party. Head of the US Air Force, General Curtis, talking to Barry LeMay, a National Geographic photographer and Everest climber, Bishop opened about how the Himalayan strip offered clear and deep views into Tibet and China.
A US top-secret mission ended in tragedy
Once Bishop opened up about the Himalayas, the CIA asked him to organise a scientific research in disguise. The intelligence asked Bishop to come up with a made-up story that he recruited climbers, therefore, keeping his identity and the mission as top secret.
Upon agreeing, Bishop made up a fake ‘Sikkim Scientific Expedition’ and took Jim McCarthy, an American climber and lawyer. He was reportedly paid 1000 dollars per month to head on this top-secret mission. McCarthy was asked to treat this mission as a vital national security task.
India joined quietly, motivated by fears of China during the 1962 conflict. Captain M.S. Kohli, the Indian mountaineer leading the expedition, was unconvinced. “It was nonsense,” he explained afterwards.
When the agency first proposed putting the device at the peak of Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest peak, Kohli responded, “I told them whoever is advising the CIA is a stupid man.” McCarthy agreed. “I looked at that Kanchenjunga plan and said, ‘Are you out of your mind?'” Eventually, they decided on Nanda Devi.
The climb started in September 1965. The climbers were airlifted to high altitudes without enough knowledge about the torrential weather. Many people fell ill, but plutonium provided warmth. The radioactive fuel released heat. Kohli said the Sherpas battled over who would carry it. At the time, he replied, “We had no idea about the danger.”
When the nuclear device went missing after the blizzard
On October 16, a blizzard hit the peak. “We were 99 per cent dead,” said Sonam Wangyal, an Indian climber. “We had empty stomachs, no water, no food, and we were totally exhausted.” McCarthy exploded after Kohli ordered that the equipment be abandoned. “You have to bring that generator down, you’re making a huge mistake,” he was saying.
But the decision stood; the following year, the team returned to reclaim the device. It was gone, an avalanche ripped away the entire ledge with the nuclear device. “‘Oh my God, this will be very, very serious,'” Kohli remembers what the CIA officers said. “‘These are plutonium capsules!'” There were further search efforts. Radiation detectors, infrared sensors, but nothing really seemed to work for either party.
“That damn thing (nuclear device) was very warm,” McCarthy explained. “It would melt the ice around it and keep sinking.” The mission turned out to be a huge disaster. However, the secret remained hidden until 1978.
When the top secret was revealed
A young reporter called Howard Kohn discovered the top-secret mission and published it in Outside magazine. The controversy erupted. Protesters in India held signs saying, “CIA is poisoning our waters.”
US President Jimmy Carter and PM Morarji Desai were questioned
Behind closed doors, countries worked fast to calm the fury. President Jimmy Carter and former Prime Minister Morarji Desai collaborated in secret. In a private letter, Carter complimented Desai for handling “the Himalayan device problem,” describing it as an “unfortunate matter.”
India and the US issued a few public statements. The men who hauled it up the mountain are now either elderly or deceased. Jim McCarthy, now in his 90s, still trembles with anger.
Captain Kohli, before his death, looked back with sadness. “I would not have done the mission in the same way,” Captain Kohli further said “The CIA kept us out of the picture; their goal was dumb as were their actions, and whoever encouraged them was idiotic. And we got trapped in it.” At the end, he marked the tragic incident as a sad story.
