Prague as target number 61? The American plan provided for the extermination of the Czech Republic
The US National Security Archives has declassified a list of sites in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China that were to be the subject of atomic bombing in the late 1950s in the event of a nuclear conflict. In what was then Czechoslovakia, the main target was Prague with serial number 61.
The declassified data shows that in 1956, US military planners continued to systematically destroy urban and industrial targets, including an explicit focus on the civilian population of key cities. These include Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Beijing, then East Berlin and Warsaw.
1,200 cities in the then Soviet bloc from East Germany to China were included among the places designated for “systematic destruction” by a nuclear strike. Each of them serial number according to the importance, is to be marked Moscow with 79 targets of nuclear attack, two Lening with 145 targets, including civilian targets.
In what was then Czechoslovakia, the main target was Prague with serial number 61 with 69 targets for destruction. Other destinations were in the vicinity of the capital in Beroun, Kladno, Kralupy nad Vltavou, Králové Dvůr, Neratovice, Psáry, Radotín, Roztoky, Slaný and Štěchovice.
American planners placed great emphasis on the liquidation of military airports. In the territory of today’s Czech Republic, the Prague airports in Kbely, Ruzyně and Vodochody, as well as the airports in Bechyně, Brno, Čáslav, České Budějovice, Dobřany, Holešov, Milovice, Mimona, Pardubice, Přerov and Žatec, were to become targets.
However, the target of a possible attack was also to be our eastern neighbors, who would also not avoid a rocket spray in the event of an escalation. In Slovakia, there were airports in Bratislava, Košice, Piešťany, Sliač and Trenčín.