In the United States declassified a plan for a nuclear attack on the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The US government has declassified a "list of targets in the communist world" on which US bombers and missiles were to launch nuclear strikes, writes Michael Peck in an article for The National Interes.

This plan, drawn up in the 1950s by the US Strategic Air Command, tells exactly which cities in Russia and throughout the "Soviet bloc" the Americans planned to destroy in the first place, and why.

A request to remove the classification from this document was submitted by an American non-governmental organization, the National Security Archives.

“The Strategic Aviation Command has compiled a list of 1, 2 thousand cities in the Soviet bloc, from East Germany to China, and also set priorities. Moscow and Leningrad were the first on this list. In Moscow, 179 points were designated for striking, and in Leningrad, 145. Among the targets for destruction were densely populated areas,”explained NGO representatives, who had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the plan.

Most of these 800-page documents consist of target lists and their corresponding alphanumeric designations.

This secret document provided for "the methodical destruction of the urban and industrial centers of the Soviet bloc, and was also quite specifically and explicitly aimed at exterminating the population in all major cities, including Beijing, Moscow, Leningrad, East Berlin and Warsaw."

"The targeted destruction of civilians as such came into direct conflict with international norms of the time, which prohibited attacks directly against people (as opposed to military targets with nearby civilians)," researchers from the National Security Archive emphasize.

There was a certain methodology behind this plan: the Strategic Aviation Command first of all planned to destroy the air power of the USSR before Soviet bombers strike targets in America and Western Europe. After all, intercontinental ballistic missiles, which were created only in the 1960s, did not exist then. More than 1,000 airfields were included in the list of priority targets, and the first on this list were the Tu-16 bombers' bases in Bykhov and Orsha.

The American command proceeded from the fact that it would be able to strike at the Soviet bloc with more than 2,200 B-52 and B-47 bombers, RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft and F-101 escort fighters. In addition, at that time, the US arsenal had 376 nuclear-armed cruise and aircraft missiles, as well as the first samples of medium-range missiles - but the plan noted that these missiles "have very little chance of destroying their targets", therefore, the main weapon in At that time, manned bombers were considered.

After the destruction of Soviet aviation, if the opposing sides by that time were still able to continue the war, it was planned to destroy Soviet industrial enterprises, as well as "a huge number of innocent people," the author emphasizes:

According to the data set forth in the document, the civilian population was deliberately included in the list of targets of the SAC from 1956, included in the analytical document from 1959 on the use of nuclear weapons."

Since the Americans wanted to bomb the enemy aircraft, it was planned to detonate hydrogen bombs not in the air, but on the ground, in order to achieve the maximum effect due to the damaging effect of the shock wave, despite the possible side effects.

"Objections to ground explosions were also considered, as well as the possibility of radioactive contamination of their troops, but the demand for victory in the air was paramount and surpassed all other considerations," the Strategic Air Command explains.

But at the same time, the American military had a very loose definition of "Soviet aviation infrastructure": they also included "all control and industrial centers that could somehow support the Russian aviation campaign," the article says.

For example, Moscow was included in this list because of the military command centers, aircraft and rocket-building enterprises, laboratories for the development of atomic weapons and oil refineries located there.

“Despite the nuclear age, the SAC strategy was more reminiscent of the American bombing of Germany and Japan during World War II than the methods of the 21st century,” states The National Interest.

This is not surprising when you consider that from 1948 to 1957, the Strategic Forces of the United States Air Force were commanded by General Curtis LeMay, who planned and conducted massive bombing of Japanese cities during World War II.