Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War and leader of the Conservative opposition after the conflict, believed that the atomic bomb should be used against several cities in the USSR to intimidate the Kremlin and keep “communism” in check.

British historian Richard Toye has discovered in the New York Times archives several pieces concerning a memorandum that Julius Ochs Adler – a former US Army officer who became the newspaper’s editor-in-chief after the war – had written about his interview with Churchill in January 1951, that is 6 years after the end of the war and only 6 months before Churchill’s second term as prime minister.

According to Julius Ochs Adler, Churchill thought the atomic bomb should be dropped on at least one out of 30 Soviet cities.

The nuclear strikes advocated by Churchill did not concern the Soviet Union alone. He believed that the atomic bomb should also be used against China, which was then ruled by Mao Zedong.

 “La Seconde Guerre mondiale aurait pu prendre fin en 1943” (The Second World War could have ended in 1943), by Viktor Litovkine, Réseau Voltaire, 30 March 2005.

 “Si l’Armée rouge n’avait pas pris Berlin…” (If the Red Army had not captured Berlin), by Viktor Litovkine, Réseau Voltaire, 1 April 2005.