"They had a couple hundred SLBMs with adequate range to wipe out every coastal city in the United States. Seattle, San Fran, LA, NYC, Houston, NOLA, Miami, Boston, all the way around."
That could have been true only if they were able to get all of them working at the same time and in position. Several of the Hotel class subs were already residing on the ocean bottom, at least one for the second time. Echo class was a bit better, but was at start of production. Even so, both had to get into range of our hydrophone network before they could launch. I suppose you could take the stance we'd ignore nuclear submarines in strike range, but...
"In addition, the R7 had a 6,000 mile range, fully deployed."
The R7 was a multistage, liquid fuel rocket with low reliability. Took more than a day to fuel and had to be launched soon after. Even then, it could only strike certain areas of the US.
"However, they had ALMOST ready for deployment (in '61) the SS7 with a range of 8,100 miles."
Operative word is ALMOST. Hard to do much destruction with something that will be deployed in the future.
"Because they most certainly did, and it certainly could be a strike which utterly destroyed the United States."
Even if everything went right, the US was stupid and they threw everything they had, it might have been close. Might not be. No rational leader would have given it more than a second's thought.
Which is what deterrence is all about. |
