Madam, - Please permit me to correct some grave factual misrepresentations about Greenland in your edition of Saturday June 26th (Books, Ultima Thule: Explorers and Natives of the Polar North):
1) It is not true that "without warning the US navy and airforce landed five thousand man at Thule". American airbases in Greenland were first established during the second World War - then based on the agreement between the Danish Minister in Washington and the American government of 9th April 1941.
With Denmark joining NATO from 1949 it was natural to place the American military presence in Greenland in a multilateral framework. Thus the 1941 agreement was superseded by the agreement of 27th April, 1951, between the government of the Kingdom of Denmark and the government of the United States of America. Based on this agreement the building of the Thule Airbase began in the summer 1951.
2) On 21st January 1968 an American B-52 bomber accidentally crashed southwest of the runway at Thule. The plane carried four hydrogen bombs, which were all unarmed. To maintain that "Three bombs exploded on impact" is obvious nonsense. Had such a disaster happened it would certainly have been recorded in the archives all over the world. Within days of the crash the Danish and American press was given permission to visit Thule.
3) If any of your readers would be interested in further details, I would refer them to the approximately 1,100 pages report Greenland during the Cold War - Danish and American Security Policy 1945-68.
This report was commissioned by the Danish government in 1995 and was issued by the independent Danish Institute of International Affairs in 1997. - Yours, etc.,
K.E. TYGESEN, Ambassador, Royal Danish Embassy, Dublin 2.