Armageddon #5

Documents show US considered using nuclear weapons

President Dwight D. Eisenhower overruled some of his military commanders in the summer of 1958, ordering them not to use nuclear weapons against China if communist forces blockaded the Taiwan Strait, according to declassified Air Force documents.

The idea of using nuclear weapons to prevent the Chinese from using ships and aircraft to isolate Nationalist-held islands in the strait was accepted by Eisenhower's Cabinet—except for Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who was away on vacation.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Air Force Gen. Nathan F. Twining, had explained at a Cabinet meeting that U.S. planes would drop 10-to-15 kiloton nuclear bombs in the vicinity of Amoy, a coastal city on the Taiwan strait now called Xiamen.

It would be reasonable to assume that the prospect of using nuclear weapons has been in the air of the various presidential administrations many times. The unthinkable was thought about.

Fortunately in this case, Eisenhower knew better. Sometimes it is advantageous to have someone with direct war experience calling the shots.

We know that Nixon considered nuclear weapons for North Vietnam.

The neoconservatives in their PNAC document conclude that a more modernized nuclear weapons arsenal is desirable. Recall how Bush and Cheney pushed this plan forward.

The present administration and its neocon supporters are the lineage heirs of this pro-right wing which begins after WWII.