Sino-Soviet nuclear war?

In 1970, at the nadir of Sino-Soviet relations, tensions between the two led to the very real fear of a nuclear exchange. The government in Beijing built a lot of bomb shelters hardened enough to withstand a nuclear war and support thousands of people in such an event.

Suppose there was a border conflict or something that escalated beyond expectation. Could the situation have become so dire as to have caused a nuclear war? If so, what would the US do about it? China had a much weaker strategic position given its small arsenal and relative lack of delivery systems, and the USSR had enough nukes that it probably could have "won" the exchange with a relatively small portion of its aresenal. Would the Russians be willing to take the risk? Would the Chinese? There's an old line about how if China lost a half a billion people in a nuclear war they could keep going with what was left. What if the leadership seriously believed that?
 
A nuclear war is a yucky prospect. The Soviets have nuclear superiority, while the Chinese have the benefit of having several hundred million screaming countrymen. It will be a blood bath of varying degrees depending on how far things go, and could see China blown to pieces. If, however, its a limited nuclear war, with tactical nukes used on a limited scale with most of it fought conventionally for fear of global conflict, then it'd be easier to swallow.

The US could take two courses. Either get involved, leading to world war. Or sit back at let them fight it out. I think the latter would be preferred.
 
It depends on the amount of bombs the chinese have. If they have 20-30 strtegic nukes, at least about 8-9 would get through. If they are major soviet cities, that would be pretty bad. however, the chinese would get wiped out by the soviets.
 
I guess the only reason the us would get hit is if a nuts soviet leader wanted to use the remains of his nuclear forces to try and make the us and soviets equal in power... i think that we should come up with is a reasonable amount of damage the soviets recieve from a chinese nuclear strike.​
 
No. To all of this. In 1969 Mao told his people to "Ready for nuclear war". They had apparently learned of Soviet Defense Minister Andrei Grechko's(1) proposal (following the Amur River Incident) to hit China with a First Strike (including the detonation of a 50 MG ton "blockbuster" over central China).

This sparked an emergency visit that same summer to Peking (now Bejing) by US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.(2) Mao had decided that he was now forced to play the "American Card". Kissinger made it clear to Mao that the Nixon Administration would consider a Soviet First Strike on the Peoples Republic of China as a strike against the USA, requiring a full retaliatory response.:mad:

This was in recognition of the facts on the ground. Namely, that massive numbers of atomic ground detonations in China and Siberia would loose a deadly cloud of toxic nuclear fallout (due to prevailing winds) over the North American landmass. Rendering the Great American Breadbasket in the Midwest more or less permanently poisoned.:eek:(3)

1) This guy made Curtis LeMay look like Ghandi.:eek:

2) Needless to say, that visit was NOT in the newspapers. But the US and China both DAMNED well made sure Brezhnev knew about it afterwards.

3) Nothing drives enemy troops into the same foxhole faster than an artillery barrage being fired by (third party) drunken fools who don't care who they hit.
 
There have been several threads on this, but what would the effects be during 1973, after the Chinese have missiles?
 
There have been several threads on this, but what would the effects be during 1973, after the Chinese have missiles?

In the early to mid-70s, the PLA was in no political condition for making trouble (Especially if the rumors of Mao's Lou Gehrig's Disease are true) Nor was the aging Politburo.
 
In the early to mid-70s, the PLA was in no political condition for making trouble (Especially if the rumors of Mao's Lou Gehrig's Disease are true) Nor was the aging Politburo.

When Mao is involved, course of events and political condition do not correlate.
 
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