Would the U.S./the world be better off if we never discovered nuclear fission?

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Lancer
Red Star Rising? Clancey, thinking wishfully.

Nah, that is as you say, wishfull fiction.

The book I'm thinking about is written by some military guy that seemed to know what he was talking about.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by GePap


And yete everyone had a good clue what happened when Uranium got split. Once that little bit of knowledge came out, someone would eventually come up with nuclear power.

Also, what are you talking about "Squash Court"? It was under the old bleachers, I should know having worked on top of that old football field for 4 years.

4 years in Regenstein? {shudders}

[David Floyd]

Lancer,

Later, after Vietnam, they could have taken europe.

But the US greatly reduced it's conventional forces after WW2, largely because of the nuclear shield. Without that shield, and with a hostile USSR, I think it likely we would have retained large conventional forces.

Let's take a quick example. Shortly after WW2, the Soviets threatened to invade and occupy Iran. Truman was able to warn them off by threatening the use of atomic weapons, which the Soviets didn't have.

But let's say we have no nukes to use as a trump card, and the Soviets are able to occupy Iran. I bet the US would see that as a powerful incentive to beef up militarily. I don't think it likely that France would have withdrawn from NATO, simply because they felt able to do so because they also had nuclear weapons.

Most likely, Western Europe would have maintained larger standing armies, and certainly a better mobilization system. The United States would not have had a nearly impotent army for many years - neither Truman or Eisenhower would have felt able to reduce it to barebones, given the combination of Soviet aggression (which would not have changed, especially under Stalin), and the lack of atomic weapons.

[Lancer]

Sounds very plausable. Perhaps the US would have maintained larger forces, but from experience I'd say the euros would not. Again, they could have increased their chances to not be nuked by maintaining a large enough force, but couldn't be bothered.

[David Floyd]

Perhaps, but I think it's also probable that the French would have remained in NATO, and that NATO as a whole would have been a much closer alliance, out of necessity (no US nuclear shield).

[Lancer]

I guess we'll never know. I'm glad we have had nukes up to this point, they might have saved us alot of grief. I'm so glad the Sovs never came across that border. I wonder if that would have been the end of humanity or if some people would have survived.