Russia’s Failed Nuclear Coercion Against Ukraine
Journal: The Washington Quarterly
Year: 2023

During the summer of 1945, Harry Truman intuitively came to believe in the effectiveness of nuclear coercion. The Soviet Union would have to cave in to US nuclear might, the President thought. Washington could organize Europe (and the world) as it saw fit against Moscow's wishes, and regional conventional superiority if necessary, given that nuclear mushroom clouds would soon reveal American destructive supremacy. He was flabbergasted a few months later, when the Soviets proved unimpressed by US