# Should nuclear weapons have been used on China during Korean War? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476 "2012-09-22T06:12:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/61 "2012-09-23T01:05:24Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > FWIW, [the Sino-Soviet split](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_split) is considered to date from somewhere in 1960 to 1962, depending on which event you think caused the rift: the Congress of the Romanian Communist Party (1960), various Party congresses in the Soviet Union in 1961, or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Granted, they generally didn’t start shooting each other until [1969](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_border_conflict). I think it goes back until at least 1953. Mao had conceded that Stalin was the unofficial leader of world communism based on Stalin having seniority and his revolutionary and WWII experience. But when Stalin died, Mao felt that he should be acknowledged as the new world communist leader - he had been fighting for communism for decades, had led his own revolution, and was the head of the world’s biggest communist power. But the Soviets felt otherwise - as far as they were concerned, leadership of world communism was permanently attached to the Soviet Union and whoever ran the Soviet Union was automatically also the leader of world communism. Mao, of course, disagreed and didn’t see why he should be a regarded as a junior partner to people like Molotov, Malenkov, or Khruschev - people he didn’t regard as his equals much less his superiors. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/62 "2012-09-23T01:19:37Z")
Wasn’t this the same argument that Douglas MacArthur made? The one that lead Truman to fire him when he wouldn’t back down? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/63 "2012-09-23T01:45:33Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > The CIA estimated the Soviets would have 10-20 atomic bombs in mid-1950, 25-45 in mid-1951 and 45-90 in mid-1952. > > [http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC\_0000258838/DOC\_0000258838.pdf](http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000258838/DOC_0000258838.pdf) > > The CIA overestimated significantly but even if their high estimates were correct, the United States would still have over 8 times as many atomic bombs from 1950-52. And how would this end up saving American lives? > [@jtgain](#): > > I disagree. If nothing else, Truman should go down in history as recognizing the awesome power of the nuclear bomb and declining to use it as any other weapon in the arsenal. It is unique in that respect. From caveman days and rocks and spears, civilization kept building bigger and bigger weapons, and using them as much as they could. Nuclear weapons were rightfully the stopping point for that. OK you’ve convinced me, Truman is now right behind Washington, Lincoln and FDR, ahead of Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt. > [@](#): > > That being said, the two we dropped on Japan were the right thing to do, but after the realization of that damage, we rightfully backed off using them as a matter of course. We knew how much damage it would do. We tested the nukes before we dropped them. Remember “I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds” -Oppenheimer > [@YogSosoth](#): > > American lives are not worth 40 Chinese cities full of lives. We shouldn’t have been in Korea in the first place. It was a war I’m glad the US didn’t exactly win Why would you be glad of that? Have you seen what North Korea looks like compared to South Korea? I can understand (but disagree with) not wanting to have ever been there in the first place but if we were going to be there, why wouldn’t you want to win? > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think it goes back until at least 1953. Mao had conceded that Stalin was the unofficial leader of world communism based on Stalin having seniority and his revolutionary and WWII experience. But when Stalin died, Mao felt that he should be acknowledged as the new world communist leader - he had been fighting for communism for decades, had led his own revolution, and was the head of the world’s biggest communist power. But the Soviets felt otherwise - as far as they were concerned, leadership of world communism was permanently attached to the Soviet Union and whoever ran the Soviet Union was automatically also the leader of world communism. Mao, of course, disagreed and didn’t see why he should be a regarded as a junior partner to people like Molotov, Malenkov, or Khruschev - people he didn’t regard as his equals much less his superiors. Mao may still have his chance if the Chinese can rewrite the history books. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/64 "2012-09-23T01:58:04Z")
It really doesn’t matter whether the Sino-Soviet split developed in 1953, 1963 or 1972. All we need for the purposes of this thread is to accept that in 1951, the Soviets would have considered a nuclear attack against either North Korea or China to be a provocation. At which point the Soviet Union starts using its nine (OP’s figures) nuclear weapons and goes on a crash course to build more. After all, that was the same strategy the U.S. had in 1945 – use all that we have and build more as fast as possible. And it doesn’t matter whether the Soviets had a long-range bomber at that moment, because they could have easily incinerated South Korea – which was less than 500 miles from Valdivostok – or West Berlin, or countries like the U.K., France, Japan, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Turkey or any of the other nations that fought under the U.N. Or would that not count unless they could get a direct hit on Washington, DC? ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/65 "2012-09-23T03:09:45Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > After reading this thread, **moonshot925** , I feel compelled to ask you this- did you serve in the military? I did. I was in the Navy for 5 years. I’m thankful I was never faced with the choice to kill another human being- I’ve known a few men who have, and it’s a brutal thing. It’s necessary sometimes, unfortunately, but it’s a terrible, terrible thing. Yes. I was a Minuteman III Missile Combat Crew Commander in the 1980s. 448th Strategic Missile Squadron, 321st Strategic Missile Wing at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota. > [@](#): > > The flippancy with which you toss around the idea of causing the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people is incredibly unnerving. Does human life have that little value to you? Where do you draw the line? If killing 10 million Chinese children might have saved some lesser number of American lives, would you be for it? Who do you trust with the power to kill millions? To save American lives. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/66 "2012-09-23T03:13:00Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > To save American lives. Because of course only Americans count as human. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/67 "2012-09-23T03:31:09Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Why would you be glad of that? Have you seen what North Korea looks like compared to South Korea? I can understand (but disagree with) not wanting to have ever been there in the first place but if we were going to be there, why wouldn’t you want to win? That’s the thing though - it’s not altogether obvious to me that a fully communist Korea would have been as terrible as the DPRK is today. The Chinese leadership was never fond of the Korean brand of communism - in fact even today they’re only allies in a very notional, “would you PLEASE shut the fuck up ?! It’s embarrassing” sort of way. But the partitioning of Korea and Western opposition meant that they _had_ to support the DPRK as is, bad and all ; or lose face/be seen as caving in to the West. Even long after the war was over. It’s really the same paradigm as the US propping up the Mujahideen and Bin Laden ; or the South Vietnamese side during the Viet-Nam war - “yeah they’re terrible, but the only alternative right now and it’ll piss off the Rooskies, so…” Worst case scenario and had the whole of Korea fallen under the thumb of the communist side, I think it’s quite possible (don’t know about _likely_, but possible) that China would have exerted more subversive influences and attempts of control over the regime than it did. And whatever you might think about China, its human rights or workers rights or environmental record or its puzzling but throbbing hard-on for Taiwan… it’s still not as bad as forever revanchist North Korea. Red Korea might not even had remained hardline communist for very long with the whole country united and political influences and grievances of all kinds given voices without external or nationalistic pressures, and without the great big bugaboo across the DMZ to distract and frighten everyone (on both sides, mind). I mean, just look what happened in Vietnam. Sure, it’s not the best and foremost bastion of freedom and they still have human rights issues, but it’s still kind of a cool place to live in now and their economy is truly awe inspiring. In light of which, was it in retrospect \*really \*worth raining all that fire from the sky, trying to prevent that outcome ? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/68 "2012-09-23T03:58:53Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > I don’t want to hijack, and I’m not saying the US (operating under the UN) did everything right, but it’s not quite as simple as “We shouldn’t have been there.” > [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Why would you be glad of that? Have you seen what North Korea looks like compared to South Korea? I can understand (but disagree with) not wanting to have ever been there in the first place but if we were going to be there, why wouldn’t you want to win? I just have a very bad impression of the US’s past anti-Communism excursions. Other than the USSR, which was an actual threat militarily, I tend to feel that all of the little satellite countries the US prevented from turning red or tried to was a total waste of time ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/69 "2012-09-23T04:08:39Z")
Wow. Speaking as an American, this thread embarrasses me. No human should wish the death of another human. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/70 "2012-09-23T04:50:50Z")
I actually feel the Korean War was a war worth fighting and it accomplished something. North Korea did invade South Korea and we were justified in helping to defend South Korea from that invasion. Granted, South Korea wasn’t a democracy in 1950 but it’s become one since. I feel we would have also been justified if we had succeeded in occupying North Korea and uniting the country under Seoul. I think it’s hard to argue that the North Koreans wouldn’t be better off now if they were part of a single Korea under the Seoul government. But the Chinese and the Soviets weren’t going to let that happen without a general war. And uniting Korea wasn’t worth the cost of a general war, much less a nuclear war. We did what could be done under the constraints of reason. You have to keep sight of what you can do and of how much it will cost to do it - and then do what you can within those limits. Not being able to do everything doesn’t justify doing nothing. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/71 "2012-09-23T05:00:33Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I just have a very bad impression of the US’s past anti-Communism excursions. Other than the USSR, which was an actual threat militarily, I tend to feel that all of the little satellite countries the US prevented from turning red or tried to was a total waste of time So, even with the benefit of hindsight, looking at Germany, Japan and S. Korea today, you really think that was a total waste of time? [sarcastic]But I guess you’ve got a point - without those three countries, the U.S. would probably still be manufacturing almost all the world’s cars and electronics.[/sarcastic] ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/72 "2012-09-23T05:02:29Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Yes. > > I was a Minuteman III Missile Combat Crew Commander in the 1980s. 448th Strategic Missile Squadron, 321st Strategic Missile Wing at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota. You really should do an “Ask the missile crewman” thread someday.🙂 [QUOTE=moonshot925] To save American lives. [/QUOTE] Ok, lets run by that again. The Soviets you say did not have the range to get to the US (leaving aside the fact that it still does not prevent them from getting nukes to the US mainland through other more creative means). You further say that the attacks on China would “save American lives”. I don’t agree. The Soviets would retaliate, in Europe for certain. But lets say Stalin, limits that to Asia. They do have nukes and the means to deliver them. They will certainly target Allied Forces in Korea with Nukes. About 35,000 US troops were KIA in Korea historically. Please tell me how exactly you are “saving American lives” if most of Eight Army is turned into pollution over North East Asia as a result of retaliation? You have hundreds of thousands dead at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/73 "2012-09-23T05:15:19Z")
So moonshot, should the USA have nuked Baghdad in 2003? If not, why not? It wold have saved American lives. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/74 "2012-09-23T06:22:20Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > So moonshot, should the USA have nuked Baghdad in 2003? Reminds me of the joke we were telling back in 1991. What do Baghdad and Hiroshima have in common? Nothing…yet ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/75 "2012-09-23T06:27:10Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > You really should do an “Ask the missile crewman” thread someday.🙂 All right, I LOL’d… It’d be interesting, were it not for the fact that most of what he could tell is already in the public domain. Still, if he wants to start that thread, I’d be interested. > [@AK84](#): > > …Ok, lets run by that again. The Soviets you say did not have the range to get to the US (leaving aside the fact that it still does not prevent them from getting nukes to the US mainland through other more creative means). You further say that the attacks on China would “save American lives”. > > I don’t agree. The Soviets would retaliate, in Europe for certain. But lets say Stalin, limits that to Asia. They do have nukes and the means to deliver them. They will certainly target Allied Forces in Korea with Nukes. About 35,000 US troops were KIA in Korea historically. Please tell me how exactly you are “saving American lives” if most of Eight Army is turned into pollution over North East Asia as a result of retaliation? You have hundreds of thousands dead at the very least. Again, I don’t think the Soviets would have. For the reason that nukes against U.S. personnel would have resulted in nukes against the Soviets, the U.S. had a lot more to use—enough to devastate the Soviet homeland, and Stalin both knew all of this already and wasn’t disposed to going to this extreme to bail out the Chinese Communists. A major impetus behind developing nuclear weapons for the Soviets was to ensure that the Soviet homeland never again faced the hideous devastation brought by the Nazis. Why then, would the Soviets embark on a course of action that would inevitably lead to to an atomic holocaust for their people, and more importantly, the loss of power of their clique? Moreover, how are the Soviets getting weapons to Korea? How are they getting enough weapons into Korea to, “turn the Eighth Army into pollution?” They can’t. They can kill quite a few Eighth Army soldiers, at the cost of opening up their own forces—who up to that point hadn’t suffered a scratch (we’re not counting their aircraft pilot advisers)—to nuclear retaliation. Particularly if you follow **Little Nemo** ’s statement that the split between the Soviets and the Chinese was extant in 1953, and probably before. I see \*\*moonshot’\*\*s point. I’m sympathetic to it, to a certain extent: the “Why are we screwing around and not taking the fight to the enemy?” point. The Chinese invaded North Korea with what? 200,000 soldiers to start, eventually up to 1 million? I don’t have any problem at all with bombing strategic targets in Manchuria—after a declaration of war. The Chinese decided to involve themselves with this war; why should their rail bridges, troop and materiel concentrations, ships, airfields, etc… have been off limits? Fear of escalating the war? Hadn’t the Chinese already escalated to the limits of their ability? Seems like the barn door was already open for that one. I don’t agree with his point about using nukes though—I view that nuclear weapons should never be used if at all possible, that we should keep the sacrifice of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as relevant as possible. Once we start viewing nukes as ‘just a larger bomb’, then we’ll see the damned things start to be used. Which will end terribly. I don’t view victory in Korea as being worth the breach of that taboo. To reiterate, the USAF killed people in gargantuan numbers in the Korean War, using only conventional weapons. I see no reason why they could not have done so as well within Communist China. I just feel that breaching the nuclear taboo would have been too high a price to pay. (As I feel towards the trial balloons of nuclear bunker-busters, that are floated from time to time as a possible solution to Iranian and North Korean high value targets.) We’re really not going to like it when countries feel they can actually use (instead of wave at each other) nuclear weapons as instruments of policy or terror. I am surprised, and grateful, it hasn’t happened yet. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/76 "2012-09-23T07:00:58Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I see \*\*moonshot’\*\*s point. I’m sympathetic to it, to a certain extent: the “Why are we screwing around and not taking the fight to the enemy?” point. The Chinese invaded North Korea with what? 200,000 soldiers to start, eventually up to 1 million? I don’t have any problem at all with bombing strategic targets in Manchuria—after a declaration of war. The Chinese decided to involve themselves with this war; why should their rail bridges, troop and materiel concentrations, ships, airfields, etc… have been off limits? Fear of escalating the war? Hadn’t the Chinese already escalated to the limits of their ability? Seems like the barn door was already open for that one. Kind of hard for us to claim that there was some moral principle that prohibited China from sending troops into Korea. We intervened to defend South Korea in June; China intervened to defend North Korea in October. So it was in our interest to keep the fighting confined to Korea and not expand it back into the home countries of other powers that intervened. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/77 "2012-09-23T07:14:16Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > So moonshot, should the USA have nuked Baghdad in 2003? Well, that might have been dangerous. We would probably have to deal with millions of radical Muslim extremists. And they would probably launch more terrorist attacks against the USA killing many Americans. Which would force us to deport all Muslim out of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/78 "2012-09-23T07:43:07Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > We would probably have to deal with millions of radical Muslim extremists. Hating a nation that nukes a city as part of a war of conquest is neither radical nor extreme. It’s not particularly Muslim either. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/79 "2012-09-23T07:55:19Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Yes, rather like the Japanese -[of whom the Chinese are not at all fond](http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-19/audi-says-it-regrets-anti-japan-photo-at-china-dealership). > > Frankly at this point I wish the Japanese and Germans had spent the last few decades talking about how much they hated us; perhaps it would have kept America from developing this idea that slaughtering people makes their friends and relatives love you. If you listen to the German far right, there’ll be plenty of people more than happy to tell you that. As for the Japanese, their nation as a whole is still stuck in the “We were victims in World War II mindset” to a certain extent, while minimizing war crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476/80 "2012-09-23T08:02:19Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Kind of hard for us to claim that there was some moral principle that prohibited China from sending troops into Korea. We intervened to defend South Korea in June; China intervened to defend North Korea in October. And even harder to claim the moral high ground by carrying the war to the enemy’s heartland by dropping 120 nuclear weapons on major population centers. Just to note on the folly of back seat driving history; estimates of the size of the Soviet nuclear arsenal and the ability to deploy them were made by the same intelligence gathering apparatus that had failed to notice that 200,000 Chinese soldiers had entered North Korea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nuclear-weapons-have-been-used-on-china-during-korean-war/635476.md?page=5)