"Russia And China Almost Had A Nuclear War In 1969" Topic

"As they're now America's two top rivals, it's easy to forget that China and Russia aren't allies and actually have decades of regional rivalry and have been at each other's throats more than once. In fact, in 1970, the Soviet Union started asking around about whether or not anyone would really care if they launched a preemptive nuclear strike against China.

Ya know, for world security and all that…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Yep, and they wanted the USA to go in with them on the attack.

The fallout worldwide would probably be horrendous in many areas …

You'd think, unless they opted for airbursts.

However, I recently read somewhere (can't recall where now), that at least back in the very early Cold War, the strategists/generals wanted to opt for groundbursts specifically because of the fallout that would take place, in order to ensure the sites hit were fully "neutralized" (my word not theirs).

Other accounts from later in the Cold War – 1960s and 1970s mention perhaps a mix of tactics, though some seem to be indicating a preference for "airbursts" instead, due to the desire to keep fallout to a minimum. That's diametrically opposed to the aforementioned, older tactic.

Of course, with thousands, if not tens of thousands of warheads planned to be used in a real attack, I suspect the issue is rather moot, at some point.

Either way … it would be a very bad situation with all that fallout for many …