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kaamrev they/them Non-passing :marseytrain: cute twink  1mo ago (youtube.com) 271 thread views #260694

How to win the Korean War

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JdT6P7e3mxI

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really makes u think if north korea would be better or worse off today if we did this

probably besides the point tho bc didnt the soviets have nukes by the korean war, so they would have retaliated against us?

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probably besides the point tho bc didnt the soviets have nukes by the korean war, so they would have retaliated against us?

Yes, their first test was in 1949, however in the early 50s the Soviet arsenal was still small compared with the American one and they didn't have means to deploy it over the US. There was no way of knowing that for sure back then though.

The main reason Truman refused was to avoid setting a bad precedent, nukes are for deterrence, not something to be used in every conflict, had they used them in Korea is likely so would the Soviets and eventually it could lead to a full scale nuclear war.

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Yeah I was under the impression that we basically knew frick all about Soviet military capabilities around that time, and it wasn't until we started flying U-2's over Soviet territory that we got anything even remotely resembling good intel. It's just much easier to keep things secret in an oppressive, authoritarian regime where they can just shoot you on suspicion of being a spy without any kind of trial.

It's probably ultimately a good thing that we've never really had a nuclear war (I barely count the end of WW2 given its limited scope, and the fact that we arguably killed far more people in firebombing campaigns than with the nukes). I doubt it would have ended up like The Road (was that nukes?) or other similar dystopian worlds since I think governments are much more resilient than those stories give them credit for, but it sure would suck having to live your life close to a nuclear bunker, plus I think you'd see a lot of anti-urban planning because a bunch of far-flung suburbs are much more difficult to target than a tightly-packed city.

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it wasn't until we started flying U-2's over Soviet territory that we got anything even remotely resembling good intel

There were bits and pieces that came out through refugees and released German POWs. And there was some photography by balloons and a few flights by modified B-57s. But yeah the interior of the USSR was mostly a mystery until the U-2 and especially the Corona satellites in the early '60s.

I think it was pretty well understood by the CIA that the US had a massive advantage in nuclear weapons at this time but there was real fear that they always seemed a few years from catching up to us.

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