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Setting aside the long term ideological goals of worldwide spread of communism by Soviet Union, they were not in position to do so in Western Europe after U.S.

Setting aside the long term ideological goals of worldwide spread of communism by Soviet Union, they were not in position to do so in Western Europe after U.S. acquired nuclear weapons. Soviet westward expansion stopped after assimilating most of the Eastern Europe. Acquisition of nuclear weapons by Soviet Union and later reaching parity with the USA, was a major factor stopping WWIII from occurring. Long list of characters, including Winston Churchill, Curtis LeMay, John von Neumann and countless other were advocating a preemptive nuclear strike on Soviet Union. Clearly Fuchs was played by Soviet spies, but in the greater scheme of things, he may have contributed to saving tens of millions of lives.

arethuza 6y ago
Worth noting that US estimates of the effects of them attacking with nuclear weapons in the early 1960s was 600 million dead - a lot in Western Europe and elsewhere. This was known to be an underestimate as US planning did not take into effect the thermal effects of nuclear weapons due to a degree of variability from cloud cover etc. So probably about a billion would have died - then there is the effect of Soviet weapons... I can recommend Daniel Ellsberg's book on the topic: https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/confessions-nuclear-war-planner https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/confessions-nuclear-war...
- gremlinsinc 6y ago
  but it never did happen, who's to say the US being the only super power with nukes, could've had a despot rise (one might be now), who if there were no other countries with nukes, might decide to use a few for the purpose of conquest. Sure, nukes are bad, all mankind should probably ditch the tech, but it's like a gun... i'd rather be in a mexican standoff, than empty handed staring down the barrel of a gun. Currently, I'm not very trusting of our (US) government and their 'goals'. Trump may or may not have known Putin was murdering our soldiers. The fact is, at least there's some solace knowing nukes will probably never be used (except maybe by N.Korea - but as a suicide action by a crazy neurotic dictator), and that there's a sort of checks/balances system as far as they are concerned. Nobody rational, wants a nuclear war or fallout or nuclear winter. Russia never building their own, also allows one side dominate in power, and power corrupts, so maybe it helped even the equilibrium. Not saying them having weapons is great, but who's to know what future would await a nazi army rising in America and being the only country with nuclear capabilities. We still might get that future, but at least there's some balance from other countries in case certain scenarios happen. It's naive to think 'our country' will always be benign and have everybody's best interests in mind... just as it would've been naive for Germans to think that in 1930.

arethuza 6y ago

Worth noting that US estimates of the effects of them attacking with nuclear weapons in the early 1960s was 600 million dead - a lot in Western Europe and elsewhere. This was known to be an underestimate as US planning did not take into effect the thermal effects of nuclear weapons due to a degree of variability from cloud cover etc. So probably about a billion would have died - then there is the effect of Soviet weapons... I can recommend Daniel Ellsberg's book on the topic: https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/confessions-nuclear-war-planner https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/confessions-nuclear-war...

gremlinsinc 6y ago
but it never did happen, who's to say the US being the only super power with nukes, could've had a despot rise (one might be now), who if there were no other countries with nukes, might decide to use a few for the purpose of conquest. Sure, nukes are bad, all mankind should probably ditch the tech, but it's like a gun... i'd rather be in a mexican standoff, than empty handed staring down the barrel of a gun. Currently, I'm not very trusting of our (US) government and their 'goals'. Trump may or may not have known Putin was murdering our soldiers. The fact is, at least there's some solace knowing nukes will probably never be used (except maybe by N.Korea - but as a suicide action by a crazy neurotic dictator), and that there's a sort of checks/balances system as far as they are concerned. Nobody rational, wants a nuclear war or fallout or nuclear winter. Russia never building their own, also allows one side dominate in power, and power corrupts, so maybe it helped even the equilibrium. Not saying them having weapons is great, but who's to know what future would await a nazi army rising in America and being the only country with nuclear capabilities. We still might get that future, but at least there's some balance from other countries in case certain scenarios happen. It's naive to think 'our country' will always be benign and have everybody's best interests in mind... just as it would've been naive for Germans to think that in 1930.