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Other Consideration of using Nuclear Weapons
I found this studing French IndoChina War regarding the consideration of
using Nuclear weapons. No doubt Korea was also being considered.
Chennault CAT / CIA was supplying the French with supplies during the
war...
Subsequently, the USAF became involved in providing transport for French
soldiers from France to Indochina. France's limited air transport assets
were stretched
to the limit in Indochina, and the large numbers of new troops required
to bolster the flagging effort on the ground simply could not be quickly
transferred to the
theatre. The answer came in the form of American C-124 Globemaster IIs,
flying the long haul from France. Flights in support of the French
continued until 1955.
Dien Bien Phu nearly provided the spark for initiating full American
involvement in the war. Numerous planning sessions were held in
Washington for a possible
airstrike on the Viet Minh positions in the hills surrounding DBP, or
the lines of support beyond the valley.
Options went as far as a possible atomic bomb strike on the Viet Minh
command, and possible into China. A massive conventional strike using
B-29s of BombCom, the Pacific based Bomber Command, incorporating
elements of the 19th, 98th and 307th BW and the 91st SRS was seriously
considered. Cover for the strike was to have been provided by Navy jets
flying of carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Such cover was necessary in light of the possibility of intervention by
Chinese MiGs. Eventually these plans, known collectively as operation
Vulture (Vautour) came to nothing, as the US demanded international
cooperation as a condition of its involvement, and the British in
particular felt that such a strike would have little effect on the final
outcome of the war. It appears that rumours of B-29s with French
roundels in the Pacific bases are unfounded.
DF