1956 U.S. Cold War Nuclear Target Lists Declassified for First Time

[wehateporn]

According to 1956 Plan, H-Bombs were to be Used Against Priority â??Air Powerâ?� Targets in the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe

Major Cities in Soviet Bloc, Including East Berlin, Were High Priorities in â??Systematic Destructionâ?� for Atomic Bombings

Strategic Air Command Declassifies Nuclear Target List from 1950s

Washington, D.C., December 22, 2015 - The SAC [Strategic Air Command] Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959, produced in June 1956 and published today for the first time by the National Security Archive The National Security Archive, provides the most comprehensive and detailed list of nuclear targets and target systems that has ever been declassified. As far as can be told, no comparable document has ever been declassified for any period of Cold War history.

The SAC study includes chilling details. According to its authors, their target priorities and nuclear bombing tactics would expose nearby civilians and â??friendly forces and peopleâ?� to high levels of deadly radioactive fallout. Moreover, the authors developed a plan for the â??systematic destructionâ?� of Soviet bloc urban-industrial targets that specifically and explicitly targeted â??populationâ?� in all cities, including Beijing, Moscow, Leningrad, East Berlin, and Warsaw. Purposefully targeting civilian populations as such directly conflicted with the international norms of the day, which prohibited attacks on people per se (as opposed to military installations with civilians nearby).

Strategic Air Command Declassifies Nuclear Target List from 1950s

[wehateporn]

[_Richard_]

heard macarthur wanted 58 nuclear strikes into china, and was going on about 'unconditional surrender' again..

if this was the plans for the soviets in the 50s, it seems somewhat restrained

[spads]

How is this news? If they declassified the Soviet documents I'm sure it would show the US and western Europe as targets. Of course that wouldn't fit into the "USA is Nazi war monger" narrative so let's just ignore that. Living in Czech Republic we only had one nuclear related catastrophe which was Chernobyl. Of course it was an accident, but the soviets withholding information about it sure wasn't. People were exposed to large amounts of radiation across eastern Europe and the Soviets didn't say shit...

[Sarn]

90% strikes marked in Ukraine and Europe

[2MuchMark]

Now most of those missile silos are under ground living spaces. Cool.