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1950s U.S. Nuclear Target List Offers Chilling Insight
The New York Times ^ | 12/21/15 | Scott Shane

Posted on 12/23/2015 9:11:31 AM PST by mrbinga

WASHINGTON — Target category No. 275 from the nuclear target list for 1959 may be the most chilling. It is called simply “Population.”

For the first time, the National Archives and Records Administration has released a detailed list of the United States’ potential targets for atomic bombers in the event of war with the Soviet Union, showing the number and the variety of targets on its territory, as well as in Eastern Europe and China.

It lists many targets for “systematic destruction” in major cities, including 179 in Moscow (like “Agricultural Equipment” and “Transformers, Heavy”), 145 in Leningrad and 91 in East Berlin. The targets are referred to as DGZs or “designated ground zeros.” While many are industrial facilities, government buildings and the like, one for each city is simply designated “Population.”

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous
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I thought others around here might find this of some interest.

Personally I've always been curious what the U.S.'s plan was for China in the event of a general nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Were they going to give them a pass and wait for them to make a move before hitting them or take them out along with the Soviets regardless of whether they provided any sort of Casus belli?

1 posted on 12/23/2015 9:11:31 AM PST by mrbinga
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To: mrbinga

Of course the New York Times is NOT to be trusted... they write for liberal elites only.


2 posted on 12/23/2015 9:14:27 AM PST by GOPJ (No one in power is on our side.No one in power is on our side. Absolutely no one. freeper marron)
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To: mrbinga

“Counter-Value” versus “Counter-Force” targeting strategy.

As our weapons became more accurate, we moved away from counter-value (population) to counter-force (military and command and control).

The Soviets and China never were all that accurate with their nuclear delivery systems so they never really moved beyond counter-value.


3 posted on 12/23/2015 9:16:34 AM PST by Hulka
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To: mrbinga

IMO this sort of information should not be released into the public.

War is hell, and you do things you have to do. It shouldn’t be coffee table or water cooler talk subject matter.

The New York Times had no filter mechanism. This isn’t released to improve anything. It’s a precursor to trashing ‘our detestable’ actions during the cold war.

Hey, we won it NYT. Get over it!


4 posted on 12/23/2015 9:18:08 AM PST by DoughtyOne ((It's beginning to look like "Morning in America" again. Comment on YouTube under Trump Free Ride.))
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To: mrbinga

I’m more curious about Russian and Chinese plans for US targets.


5 posted on 12/23/2015 9:21:07 AM PST by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
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To: mrbinga

Can we have a new year’s resolution to stop writing the word “chilling” in every other headline?


6 posted on 12/23/2015 9:22:05 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: mrbinga

The point of preparing to fight it was so that we’d never have to. Leftists, Soviet sympathizers, never understood that simple strategy.


7 posted on 12/23/2015 9:22:05 AM PST by Defiant (RINOs are leaders of a party without voters. Trump/Cruz are leaders of voters without a party.)
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To: Vince Ferrer
Can we have a new year's resolution to stop writing the word "chilling" in every other headline?

How about "unexpectedly chilling?"

;^)

8 posted on 12/23/2015 9:27:02 AM PST by Disambiguator
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To: mrbinga

I’m sure the Soviets target list was full of grain silos and swampland.


9 posted on 12/23/2015 9:29:40 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: DoughtyOne; Hulka

See Hulka’s post 3. The NYT isn’t reporting anything new. Counter-value and counter-force have been known for decades.


10 posted on 12/23/2015 9:32:20 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: GOPJ

These (the SIOP papers) “used to be” Top Secret.

But it is now Obola’s administration ....


11 posted on 12/23/2015 9:32:33 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: mrbinga

Do the Fellow Travellers at the Slimes think for a second that the Soviets didn’t have a similar map of the United States? With New York as a high-priority first-wave target?


12 posted on 12/23/2015 9:33:09 AM PST by IronJack
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To: Vince Ferrer

I’d tell you the chilling tale of a bottle of pinot grigio in my refrigerator, if I had one.


13 posted on 12/23/2015 9:33:49 AM PST by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: mrbinga

All of the targets in europe, africa, and asia know who they are.

If the US decided to launch an all out nuclear assault, it would mean that we are in a no win situation, and would be reduced to a scorched earth policy.

Think about this. We could literally return the world to the stone age in thirty minutes or less.


14 posted on 12/23/2015 9:34:23 AM PST by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: Vince Ferrer
Globull Chilling?
15 posted on 12/23/2015 9:35:13 AM PST by JEDI4S (I don't mean to cause trouble...it just happens naturally through the Force!)
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To: VanShuyten

Their CEPs were large, so they used huge warheads to compensate. Military facilities, critical infrastructure and population centers.


16 posted on 12/23/2015 9:36:11 AM PST by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: tanknetter; Hulka

Thanks for the mention TankNetter.

With our vile Left in this nation, we should hold on to our government secrets much better than we do.

Just because our policies from 25 to 50 years ago are dated, we should still play close to the vest on such issues.

That’s my take on it.


17 posted on 12/23/2015 9:36:15 AM PST by DoughtyOne ((It's beginning to look like "Morning in America" again. Comment on YouTube under Trump Free Ride.))
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To: factoryrat; SJackson; Nachum; SunkenCiv

Well, the first nuclear bomb exploded in the MidEast will (now) likely be over top of Israeli citizens.

The second and third will be over top of Mecca. Then Medina.


18 posted on 12/23/2015 9:36:49 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: DoughtyOne

Unfortunately it would seem the days of doing what you have to do in war are behind us. Well behind us.


19 posted on 12/23/2015 9:38:11 AM PST by John W (Less Than Two Years of ISIS Best Friend Left)
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To: John W

Can’t argue with that. Hopefully some sanity will return.


20 posted on 12/23/2015 9:41:15 AM PST by DoughtyOne ((It's beginning to look like "Morning in America" again. Comment on YouTube under Trump Free Ride.))
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