Dien Bien Phu: Did the US offer France an A-bomb?

[Taz]

Dien Bien Phu: Did the US offer France an A-Bomb? is the title of a recent BBC article on the web.

Apparently one of the options concidered while planning Operation Vulture was the use of 3 small tactical nuclear weapons in support of the French.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27243803

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vulture

Edited May 5, 2014 by Taz

[Hugh]

I participated in the declassification of many documents about SE Asia in the 1950's. I saw no specific reference to use at Dien Bien Phu, but there was considerable discussion of the use of nukes in Laos. It seemed obvious that several on the JCS were willing, and DBP would have been a logical extension to the target list. If so, it's extremely unlikely that weapons would have been transferred to the French. It's much more likely that they would have been dropped by US aircraft.

H

[Taz]

Hi Hugh,

Thanks for the response.

My understanding is that as part of Operation Vulture, which would have been a USAF operation, one of the options was the use of tactical Nuclear weapons so they would not have been handed over to the French directly.

I dread to think of the further consequences if such an operation had taken place.

Regards Eddie

[Paul R]

That could have sparked WW3...

[TacHel]

That could have sparked WW3...

Yup... The Chinese would've gone totally ballistic over the use of tactical nukes so close to their borders. The dominoes would've potentially fallen pretty quickly...