Why did we not use nuclear weapons in Vietnam?

The US did not resort to using nuclear weapons in Vietnam for a variety of reasons: fear of the damage it would cause to the US’s international reputation, domestic political considerations, a reluctance to break the ‘tradition’ of non-use, and a realization that, although there were plenty of viable targets such as …

Will Vietnam develop nuclear weapons?

Vietnam is not known to have ever developed biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons. Vietnam possesses a limited missile arsenal but does not indigenously produce them. …

Is Vietnam against nuclear power?

Vietnam has been considering to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes based on modern, verified technology since 1995, and firm proposals surfaced in 2006. However, in November 2016 Vietnam decided to abandon nuclear power plans as they were “not economically viable because of other cheaper sources of power.”

Did the US use nuclear weapons in Vietnam?

While no nuclear weapons were deployed in Vietnam, they were on board aircraft carriers and stockpiled in the region, increasing in numbers up through mid-1967. [22] CINCPAC plans for a major escalation of the war included both nuclear and nonnuclear options.

Could the United States have used nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War?

Of all cases of Cold War conflict in which the United States could have used nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War provides one of the strongest tests of a taboo against their first use. In Vietnam, the United States chose to lose a humiliating and destructive war against a small, nonnuclear adversary while all its nuclear weapons remained on the shelf.

Did the Joint Chiefs recommend we use nuclear weapons in Vietnam?

If the Chinese came in, the Joint Chiefs took for granted we would cross into China and use nuclear weapons to demolish the communists. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower also recommended to Johnson that we use nuclear weapons in both North and South Vietnam.

Were nukes a bad idea in Vietnam?

Throughout the Vietnam War, such talk was mostly just that, but in 1966, it worried certain people enough to gin up a classified study of tactical nuclear weapons use in Southeast Asia. The study’s authors—members of the JASONs, the Pentagon’s “wise men”—concluded that any way you looked at it, nukes in ‘Nam were a very bad idea.

Could the Soviet Union have supplied North Vietnam with nukes?

The Soviet Union could not afford another loss of face only four years after the Cuban Missile Crisis and might well have supplied North Vietnam with tactical nukes. Such weapons, the JASONs noted, were just the sort of military forces the U.S. deployed to Vietnam in large bases and ports and large troop concentrations.