Khlopov’s article provides the clearest available Soviet discussion of the character of a future world war in the late Stalin years. The United States would launch an atomic air offensive, and this would be countered by Soviet air defenses and by strikes against United States air bases. Soviet ground forces would launch a counteroffensive in Europe, and perhaps also in the Middle East, to prevent the United States from using those regions as a springboard for attacking the Soviet Union. This image of a future war matches postwar military policy.
