US intended to destroy civilian populations in enemy cities during Cold War according to declassifie

[newthinking]

US intended to destroy civilian populations in enemy cities during Cold War according to declassified target list

US intended to destroy civilian populations in enemy cities during Cold War according to declassified target list
The document was prepared in the summer of 1956 and made available this week

Andrew Buncombe
The Telegraph

“One of the most interesting things is the amount of minute detail,” senior analyst William Burr told The Independent.

“The priority was installations. But there were also target areas of human population. We still don’t know precisely where….But it is chilling.”

The list reveals that the priority for any operation launched by the US was airfields and installations, as they wanted to be able to destroy any chance the Soviet Union had of itself attacking America.

But included in each city are specific areas - a detail that to this day remains classified - that the US intended to target because of their dense human populations. This tactic was apparently at odds with international rules of war that prohibit specific targeting of civilians.

The 700-page document, Strategic Air Command (SAC) Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959, was produced in the summer of 1956 and made available this week by the National Security Archive, located at George Washington University in Washington DC.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-intended-to-destroy-civilian-populations-in-enemy-cities-during-cold-war-according-to-a6784756.html

[leveymg]

1. It's precisely what we did during WW2. Strategic Bombing.

Gen Curt LeMay called it "making the rubble bounce" and had already killed a million people - so what's another 30 to 60 million dead Russians?

[Judi Lynn]

2. It would take a monster to enjoy using that phrase. Far beyond sadistic. Thank you. n/t

[lastlib]

4. LeMay was that monster.....

I have no doubt that there were other monsters in our high command.

[GGJohn]

7. You don't think the Russians had military leaders who believed the same strategy

with basically the same mind set?

[MisterP]

3. "At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_S._Power

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. crazy - we are a lost species

the few great minds that have voiced options are mostly ignored

the way is clear - and few care to venture

[GGJohn]

6. And the former Soviet Union had the same strategy,

they had several warheads targeted on each major city, so don't just say the US had that policy.