re: #99 Eric The Fruit Bat

Some light reading:

U.S. Cold War Nuclear Target Lists Declassified for First Time

According to 1956 Plan, H-Bombs were to be Used Against Priority “Air Power” Targets in the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe

Major Cities in Soviet Bloc, Including East Berlin, Were High Priorities in “Systematic Destruction” for Atomic Bombings

Plans to Target People (“Population”) Violated International Legal Norms

SAC Wanted a 60 Megaton Bomb, Equivalent to over 4,000 Hiroshima Atomic Weapons

Note that the doc is a very early plan, and only includes strategic targets. It was normal to target high-value areas redundantly, more than one weapon.

This is Vicenza, Italy, a UN World Heritage city stuffed to the rafters with art, architecture, and 100,000 delightful people. It also had a couple tiny US/NATO headquarters and some tactical weapons. Ranking officer was only an Army 2-star.

en.wikipedia.org

After the wall came down we got access to Warsaw Pact declassified lists. Vicenza had two 500KT IRBMs coming our way from Hungary.

MAD execution would have been ‘generous’.