Stalin and the Bomb

by David Holloway

The main targets for the blunting mission were atomic energy installations (estimated at 25), airfields (estimated at 645), military headquarters, and government control centers.77 The disruption mission targeted industries that were critical for the conduct of war: atomic energy, aircraft, POL [Petroleum–Oil–Lubrication], ammunition, steel, and electric power.78 Early in 1955 the Defense Department’s Weapons Systems Evaluation Group (WSEG) concluded that the currently planned atomic offensives against the Soviet Union would result in 77 million casualties in the Soviet bloc, of whom 60 million would die. Of the 134 major cities, 118 would be bombed, and between 75 and 84 per cent of the population in those cities would be killed.79 These estimates were very much higher than those given in the Harmon Report of May 1949. New designs and growing stockpiles were making nuclear war a much more destructive affair.