Fallout: US Plans to Nuke the World Revealed by Cold War Era Target List

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In what is said to be the most comprehensive nuclear target list declassified to date, revealed on Tuesday, the SAC Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959 offers an alarming insight into US military plans to inflict "systematic destruction" on enemy cities and to target their "population" in case of war with the Soviet Union.

With targets designated in over 1,200 cities, including Moscow, Beijing, Berlin and Warsaw, the target list for every city contains target category No. 275, "population," alongside industrial and infrastructural target categories.

Another list, containing over 1,100 airfields across the Soviet Bloc, specifically targeted the Soviet bomber force, according to NARA. Produced at a time before the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the study prioritized targeting piloted bombers, the only means of nuclear weapon delivery.

According to the SAC study, Soviet airfields were to be targeted with bombs ranging from 1.7 to 9 megatons, which were capable of inflicting significant damage. The SAC also believed in the necessity of a 60-megaton bomb (four thousand times larger than Hiroshima bomb's 15 kilotons) capable of delivering "significant results" in the event of war with the Soviet Bloc.