Stalin and the Bomb

by David Holloway

In January 1952 the Joint Chiefs of Staff authorized the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Eisenhower, to begin planning for the use of atomic bombs by Navy tactical air units and by Air Force units which were soon to be stationed in Europe.38 Tactical nuclear weapons soon began to be allocated to the defense of Western Europe, for delivery by aircraft, missiles, and guns. The Soviet military followed the developments in NATO closely, and in 1953 and 1954 made a serious effort to adjust tactics and operational art to the nuclear battlefield.39 The 1951 exercise in the Turkestan Military District indicates that some work had been done already, but it was in the autumn of 1953 that the problem was first tackled seriously.