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TROUBLE WITH HENRY 293
in Tel Aviv'. Returning from the target, he had only fifteen
minutes' worth of fuel left when he met up with the next
tanker. On landing, the ground crew had recovered the imagery
and the sigint from the aircraft within twenty minutes. 58 Four
flights were made from Griffiss before deteriorating weather
forced the SR-71 teams to move to Seymour Johnson Air Force
Base in North Carolina, which was even further away.59
It has been alleged that these missions were helpful to the
Israelis, who. when handed the material they gathered were
able to spot weak points in the Egyptian lines, contributing to
their success in the latter stages of the war.60 Kissinger had also
kept up American resupply to the region, and by 16 October
the Israelis were pushing confidently into the Sinai. 61 However,
by 24 October Kissinger was calling for current intelligence on
the exact positions of the two sides, whereupon Bill Colby, the
Director of the CIA, admitted: 'I don't have any solid information.'
Yet another precarious ultra-long-range SR-71 mission
was required. After agonising for some minutes, Kissinger
exclaimed, 'Let's fly the thing. We've got to find out what's
going on.'62
The most controversial event of the Middle East War occurred
a day later on Thursday, 25 October. Richard Nixon decided to
put American forces on a nuclear alert, or 'Defcon 3', in an
effort to send the Soviets a clear signal not to intervene in the
conflict. Edward Heath was incensed, since he regarded this
move as provocative and unnecessary. What was worse, Heath
was the last person to find out. Most senior British officials
knew early on the Friday morning, but Heath only found out
from news sources in the afternoon. A furious Heath ordered
an inquiry by a former Cabinet Secretary, Sir Edward Bridges:
'I wish the highest priority to be given to this with no attempt
whatever to hide any defects there may have been in our system
at Home or defects in President Nixon's conduct.' Heath insisted
that the 'world wide nuclear alert' had done 'immense harm',
and complained that 'an American President in the Watergate
position [was] apparently willing to go to such lengths at a