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Cold War-era nuclear targets list revealed by National Archives

By Shawn Price
The mushroom cloud soars skyward after an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The National Archives this week declassified a list of other possible nuclear targets. UPI File Photo
1 of 2 | The mushroom cloud soars skyward after an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The National Archives this week declassified a list of other possible nuclear targets. UPI File Photo | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- The National Archives revealed Tuesday a declassified 1956 U.S. plan for using nuclear weapons against its Cold War enemies.

The priorities and concerns of the Strategic Air Command's plan demonstrate the new forces tugging at military leadership as the Cold War -- and the idea of all-out nuclear war -- was heating up.

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In the days before long-range missiles, wiping out the Soviet Union's air power was the primary objective in the plan, meaning hitting airbases throughout Eastern Europe.

But once that was established, the "systematic destruction" of key industrial centers like East Berlin, Moscow, Leningrad, Warsaw and Beijing was next and that meant killing lots of innocent people, challenging international standards.

William Burr, senior analyst at George Washington University's National Security Archive made the records request in 2006 that resulted in the release of the plan this week. Burr heads the group's nuclear history documentation project.

"Their target priorities and nuclear bombing tactics would expose nearby civilians and 'friendly forces and people' to high levels of deadly radioactive fallout," Burr wrote in his analysis of the plans.

The so-called "population" targets included a list of 179 "designated ground zeroes" in Moscow and another 145 in Leningrad.

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The 1956 plan was hardly written in concrete. Intelligence gathering constantly reshuffled priorities. Burr said it was also drawn up before defense officials concluded there should be an "option to spare Moscow in order to leave someone to negotiate with."

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