# Did the Soviets have 'suitcase nukes' in the USA?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviets-have-suitcase-nukes-in-the-usa/92694>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviets-have-suitcase-nukes-in-the-usa/92694 "2001-11-10T22:53:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sputnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sputnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnik)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviets-have-suitcase-nukes-in-the-usa/92694/21 "2001-11-12T05:23:31Z")

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According to this site  
[http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/pakistan/missiles.html](http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/pakistan/missiles.html)  
“Pakistan is capable of producing nuclear warheads approximately the size of a soccer ball and weighing 400 kg”  
Maybe a little heavy for the conventional suitcase but certainly small enough to fit in one. I would presume the Soviet Union would have developed this technology long before Pakistan. So it appears that the “suitcase nuke” was technically possible; whether or not they were deployed in the U.S., I don’t know.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviets-have-suitcase-nukes-in-the-usa/92694/22 "2001-11-12T21:32:09Z")

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**spoke-** , wasn’t it in TIME a couple of issues ago?

I saw something similar, in the “## years ago” section at the beginning of the magazine. I think it was by Hugh Sidey, who covered the White House for TIME during the Kennedy period.

His version was that a group of trusted journalists was having a deep-background lunch with JFK (remember, pre-Watergate 🙂 ) and this topic came up. JFK said that the Soviets had a nuke in their embassy; Sidey said, “Yeah, sure.”

Kennedy went alpha-male, stared at Sidey, and said “I’ve been reliably informed that they do. Do you know something I don’t?”  
JFK playing with journalists’ minds? JFK giving the journalists a glimpse of terror? JFK telling them the straight goods? who knows?

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**Author:** ![Poloin99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Poloin99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poloin99)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-soviets-have-suitcase-nukes-in-the-usa/92694/23 "2001-11-12T22:22:33Z")

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What should be looked at is how a nuclear explosion is created. After that question is answered it would be possible to speculate whether suitcase bomb is possible.

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