“a few nuke strikes.”
I am not sure Patton knew about the weapon. Furthermore, there was not enough fissionable material to make more than a few bombs at the time of VE day.
That said, I am not so sure we would have won an engagement in the East. Our supply lines were extended quite far and our “allies” were not keen on going beyond Germany, most of it that is. We were gearing up for an invasion of the Japanese homeland too. I think we also demonstrated our lack of expansion also in China in that we did not enter into the conflict with the commies there post beating Japan either.
I do believe that Patton was right on in his assessment of Stalin and the Commies but our will to expand the war was not in the cards even though Germany had a non aggression pact with Russia tacitly giving the Nazis the impetus to attack westward.
I don’t know if he knew about the Manhattan Project or not—he probably didn’t know.
We had troops on both Russian fronts though at the close of WWII. An eastern invasion of Russia could have been facilitated since our troops were already at the doorstep around Japan, however you make a good point about the Chinese conflict.
It’s just interesting to contemplate what could have been, had the American people had the will to finish the job. Russia had lost over 20 million from what I understand—they would have been sitting ducks I think.