Contingency plans are required and routine military documents. and it is their very purpose to be ready for the unthinkable and unlikely. We would properly be concerned if our armed services were not prepared for actions in every corner of the globe where military action might take placeeven under the most farfetched scenarios. Military confrontations ordinarily occur suddenly and without warning. The storming of our Embassy in Pakistan. the recent Cuban refugee exodus. seizure of the Mayaguez. Pearl Harborall of these were unexpected and unusual events for which contingency plans were an essential and expected part of military planning. Understandably the details of these plans are. and should be. kept secret.