Why didn't the Soviets attack China when it was developing nuclear weapons?

A historical question that may hopefully turn into an AH discussion. So why didn't they? It's not like they didn't see it coming.
 
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alliance

I heard one time that there was a proposal by the USSR that the UK strike out of HK and the USA strike with them after the Chinese developed the bomb.
 
A historical question that may hopefully turn into an AH discussion. So why didn't they? It's not like they didn't see it coming?

Probably anyone stupid enough to ask for it would be answered with a simple:

Have you ever look at a Chinese map?! Its a bit big for an invasion!
 
The Soviet Union didn't have the capacity to without leaving itself dangerously exposed against NATO.
 
Because the Sino-Soviet war this would have kicked off would have been bloody and expensive for both sides, and only their enemies (NATO, Taiwan, etc.) would have gained advantage from it.
 
Well that was an interesting read.

Though it would require the Chinese leadership having their heads stuck so far up their own asses that they would be able to see their bellies.

It also would have almost assuredly lead to my father, who was a tank commander in Vietnam stationed at Da Nang, into being part of a major conflict... yikes.

I was surprised by the ridiculous capabilities of the Chinese to launch chemical attacks on places they should never have been able to touch though...

And how slow it took Commonwealth countries and various US allies to respond to what was basically a very lopsided Third World War, really the first Chinese attacker to touch a US soldier would have resulted in Australia going to war with the PRC, they wouldn't just sit tacitly by and wait to be attacked.
 
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A historical question that may hopefully turn into an AH discussion. So why didn't they? It's not like they didn't see it coming.

The Soviets helped the Chinese develop their atomic weapons, though they cut off support in 1959, and the Chinese had to make the next step to thermonuclear weapons entirely on their own. The Sino-Soviet split wasn't really finalized until after the Chinese had their first fission bomb. So, until after the Chinese had atomic weapons, the Soviets had no reason to attack, and afterward, the Soviets have more to lose from China nuking Vladivostok on its way into the glowing ash heap of history than they have to gain from destroying the PRC.

A Sino-Soviet War before 1964 would just allow the United States to grab up South Vietnam and send Republic of China forces into the PRC to raise hell, while taking Soviet focus away from Europe and generally ruining the USSR's strategic position in Europe and Asia.
 
China is already at war with the US and the USSR, and they decide to play " How many people can we go to war with?"

Yeah, I'm lost too.

Pretty much.

There do exist realistic escalation scenarios that wind up bringing a lot of China's neighbors in against them. Attacking Korea and Japan and places from which the US can conceivably retaliate is perfectly plausible once they're at war.

But seriously the whole "let's ATTACK AFGHANISTAN AND INDIA" thing just kind of pushed it into full retard territory.
 
China is already at war with the US and the USSR, and they decide to play " How many people can we go to war with?"

Yeah, I'm lost too.

If Mao really went off the deep end I can just about see the two superpowers joining forces to put him down.

It's the losses that get. The fact is the Red Army or US Army would rack up Gulf War kill-ratios on the PLA by themselves. Never mind jointly.

Also justhow is Mao spamming all these troops that are invading everywhere? Once the PLA is burned out most of the ChiCom ''troops'' would be armed with sticks & old rusted scrap.
 
If Mao really went off the deep end I can just about see the two superpowers joining forces to put him down.

It's the losses that get. The fact is the Red Army or US Army would rack up Gulf War kill-ratios on the PLA by themselves. Never mind jointly.

Also justhow is Mao spamming all these troops that are invading everywhere? Once the PLA is burned out most of the ChiCom ''troops'' would be armed with sticks & old rusted scrap.

Yeah, the losses are retarded.

The capabilities of the Chinese military in general are way more than they should be, fact is after a while if the US decides that China's navy is a problem (and it kind of is... they're at war with the US and its allies), they're simply going to knock it down.

A realistic course of the war would probably have been some strong initial Chinese successes of the "well we'll hit em hard, fast, and when they don't expect it" sort of strategy, quickly followed by the massive pushbacks of the Red Army and the USA.

Forget all of Moscow's other problems, this is a dream come true for the Soviets, because there's no way like a foreign invader to make the Soviet masses go DEFEND RODINA.

Of course, the Chinese wouldn't get to the point of losing their capital and most of their military capacity before a few of Mao's subordinates decided that the honorable chairman was off the honorable deep end and forced him into retirement.
 
If Mao really went off the deep end I can just about see the two superpowers joining forces to put him down.

It's the losses that get. The fact is the Red Army or US Army would rack up Gulf War kill-ratios on the PLA by themselves. Never mind jointly.

Also justhow is Mao spamming all these troops that are invading everywhere? Once the PLA is burned out most of the ChiCom ''troops'' would be armed with sticks & old rusted scrap.

I kinda found it most hard to read after 4-13-1968. If Red China goes and uses chemical weapons against a city in the CONUS, that's the end. Mao Zedong's army will most likely be found in the radioactive ash cloud drifting over Japan.

The losses also seemed kinda random. Chinese missile attacks--presumably conventional--kill in one night twice as many as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined did?

EDIT: Upon continuing reading, I find even more unrealism. It seems that the brains of enemies of the United States flow out of their ears at some point. Iraq pledges itself to Red China, despite practically sharing a land border with the USSR. Romania and Albania have also apparently pledged themselves to Mao, despite sharing borders with the USSR for the former and USSR-ally Tito for the latter.
 
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