Nuclear weapon in the strategies of the United States and NATO. The containment strategy

The fact that the production and the use of a nuclear weapon during the World War II began a new chapter in both the development of military technology and views on the preparation and conduct of a war. Creators and supporters of the atomic bomb quickly realized that it was too powerful to force it into the framework of existing doctrines. Therefore, it proved necessary to look for other solutions as the basis for a new type of a strategy. It was expected that this would be the political-military "containment" strategy introduced in the late 1940s. This, becoming the cornerstone of the US foreign policy, treated the nuclear arsenal as the most convenient and sometimes the only tool of deterrence of the Soviet Union. In the military dimension, as a derivative of the contradictory nuclear strategy of the Truman’s administration, it did not give up the bombing of cities but through deterrence and assurance of the security of allies in Europe it proposed a quick and massive nuclear attack