Stalin and the Bomb

by David Holloway

There is little evidence to suggest that the United States was able to use the bomb to compel the Soviet Union to do things it did not want to do. Atomic diplomacy played no part in the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Iran in 1946, the example of compellence (to use the political science term) most frequently cited in the postwar period. There is more evidence for the deterrent effect of the atomic bomb, especially during the Berlin crisis, but even in this instance the case is not conclusive. There is no convincing evidence to show that the atomic bomb deterred a Soviet invasion of Western Europe in the first four years after the war. The United States did not have enough atomic bombs in the early postwar years to be able to prevent the Soviet Union from occupying Western Europe; and the Soviet leaders were aware of this.