NATO Nuclear Attack Blueprint: A Glimpse Into the Past
NATO nuclear attack blueprint, circa 1956. The plan was simple: devastate Eastern Europe.
Declassified Plans and Target Allocation
Declassified information shows NATO had 1,100 targets earmarked for nuclear attacks should the Cold War suddenly turn hot. While a fair few were reserved for the Soviet Union itself, the majority of those bombs would have been dropped on Eastern Europe, literally leveling Warsaw Pact countries. East Germany, in particular, would have had a hard time.
Limitations of Delivery Systems
Keep in mind that the main delivery system for nuclear bombs at the time was the bomber. Not all would have made it to their target and even fewer would have made it back home. Additionally, those nukes were not as powerful back then as they are now.
Potential Fallout and Consequences
Still, those 1,100 nukes had the potential to decimate Eastern Europe and expose Western Europe or the Mediterranean or Scandinavia to massive fallout should the wind blow in the wrong direction. Add the Soviet nukes launched in retaliation to the 1,100 western nukes, and you were faced with a real potential to provoke a decade-long mini ice age, devastating farming yields and impacting the world’s population at large.
The Grim Reality
Nobody wins a nuclear war. -RBM
