US military considered using nuclear weapons against China in 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis, leaked documents show
Updated 3:01 AM ET, Mon May 24, 2021
Nationalist Chinese soldiers on Quemoy Island, which became the focus of an artillery bombardment from mainland China in 1958.
Hong Kong (CNN)Military planners in Washington pushed for the White House to prepare
plans to use nuclear weapons against mainland China during the Taiwan Strait crisis in 1958, newly leaked documents appear to confirm.
The documents, first reported on by the New York Times Saturday, reveal the extent of Washington s discussions about using nuclear weapons to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, including the acceptance by some US military leaders of possible retaliatory nuclear strikes on US bases.
U.S. considered nuclear strike on China in 1958 over Taiwan crisis, classified documents show
May 24, 2021 / 6:46 AM / AFP Daniel Ellsberg on The Doomsday Machine
U.S. military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by Communist forces, classified documents posted online by Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame show.
U.S. planners also assumed that the Soviet Union would aid China and retaliate with nuclear weapons a price they deemed worth paying to protect Taiwan, according to the document, first reported by the New York Times.
Former military analyst Ellsberg posted online the classified portion of a top-secret document on the crisis that had been only partially declassified in 1975.
The Straits Times
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WASHINGTON • US military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by communist forces, according to classified documents posted online by Dr Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.
United States considered nuclear strike on China over Taiwan in 1958, classified documents reveal
The US also assumed that the Soviet Union would aid China and retaliate with nuclear weapons, according to the documents
Former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg is famous for his 1971 leak to US media of a top-secret Pentagon study on the Vietnam war known as the Pentagon Papers
US military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by Communist forces, classified documents posted online by Daniel Ellsberg of
The Pentagon Papers television show.
US planners also assumed that the Soviet Union would aid China and retaliate with nuclear weapons – a price they deemed worth paying to protect Taiwan, according to the document, first reported by
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