Weizacker wasn't alone in that opinion: [John] Von Neumann was, at the time, a strong supporter of "preventive war." Confident even during World War II that

Weizacker wasn't alone in that opinion: [John] Von Neumann was, at the time, a strong supporter of "preventive war." Confident even during World War II that the Russian spy network had obtained many of the details of the atom bomb design, Von Neumann knew that it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Union became a nuclear power. He predicted that were Russia allowed to build a nuclear arsenal, a war against the U.S. would be inevitable. He therefore recommended that the U.S. launch a nuclear strike at Moscow, destroying its enemy and becoming a dominant world power, so as to avoid a more destructive nuclear war later on. "With the Russians it is not a question of whether but of when," he would say. An oft-quoted remark of his is, "If you say why not bomb them tomorrow, I say why not today? If you say today at 5 o'clock, I say why not one o'clock?" https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/game-theory/neumann.html https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/project...