AHC: Shorter WWII and nukes:

Supposing WWII ends earlier, whether by a smashing earlier Soviet victory or the Germans having everything in their drive to the West go wrong for them, what happens with nuclear weapons, given they weren't invented until August of 1945 IOTL? IMHO the Soviets will develop them first due solely to being the only state with the ability to spend the time and money on that project with no accountability to anyone but its own leadership, but I might well be wrong about it (and my argument relies solely on the skepticism that would exist about the expenses of such weapons without Hitler as a motivating force in peacetime societies). If the Soviets or someone else in this scenario do develop the weapons first, what happens to nuclear strategy ITTL?
 
If the Soviets did develop them first... that would have very interesting geo-political effects to say the least. If they do it right, the US could be the one playing catch up in that area, which would be interesting.

For how, perhaps the Soviets invest in radios far more, from contributions of a certain scientist not paid attention to in OTL, they not only crush the Nazis, but gain some... technocratic elements perhaps? (This is based on another thread somewhat back.)

Just food for thought.
 
The Manhattan Project was unbelievably expensive. The US will not pour in those resources if they are not afraid of Hitler winning the war. The project would likely be continued, the potential is simply to great to ignore. However at a much slower pace due to less funding.

The Soviets are not going to invent the bomb first. In OTL they were desperate to build it as a matter of self defense and had the advantage of spies within the US project. Even so they were unable to do so until the 1950's. Without the desperate need to match the Americans, and more importantly, without the information about existing atomic bombs the Soviet Union is not going to be first.

The UK is a dark horse in this race, but if Hitler is beaten early on they likely won't feel sufficient urgency to pour in the needed funds. The US is really the only country with the necessary wealth to research this without a war making it a high priority.
 
The Manhattan Project was unbelievably expensive. The US will not pour in those resources if they are not afraid of Hitler winning the war. The project would likely be continued, the potential is simply to great to ignore. However at a much slower pace due to less funding.

The Soviets are not going to invent the bomb first. In OTL they were desperate to build it as a matter of self defense and had the advantage of spies within the US project. Even so they were unable to do so until the 1950's. Without the desperate need to match the Americans, and more importantly, without the information about existing atomic bombs the Soviet Union is not going to be first.

The UK is a dark horse in this race, but if Hitler is beaten early on they likely won't feel sufficient urgency to pour in the needed funds. The US is really the only country with the necessary wealth to research this without a war making it a high priority.

Um, they invented the bomb in 1949, not the 1950s. Which astonished the USA, and their project was already going in 1940. If anything they'd be *more* efficient at it without the whole "NVKD will kill you if anything goes remotely wrong with it", while the USSR has less pressing time-matters here. I'm not sure the UK would bother with it in the wake of India's independence and the collapse of the British Empire, it seems to me that would take precedence over it. I agree ITTL the USSR won't have the Bomb until the 1950s, but it's not got the same pressing dire necessity to build one as fast as possible.

The Soviets also did not have spies in the US project alone, they also had them in the British, and if the war's over, what can the USA or UK do about Soviet uranium purchases without revealing their own secret projects on an official level?
 
For any POD after around 1941, the US will finish the bomb by 1947. The Soviets will duplicate the feat some time before 1950--the exact date depends on which Soviet scientists you listen to. Some Soviets said that the KGB forced them to follow American designs and ignore their own, sometimes better, ideas, while others say that espionage was invaluable in teaching them how to refine isotopes and what the critical mass was.

The Bomb is really hard to pass up once the initial funding and infrastructure are in place. It offers the potential to satisfy all the "Strategic Bombing Will Win Wars" people in the world's air forces. So once the initial calculations are made and the infrastructure is constructed, it will be carried out to its conclusion.
 
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