
Davy Crockett Portable Nuclear Weapon - tejohnso
https://www.damninteresting.com/davy-crockett-king-of-the-atomic-frontier/
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edblarney
Micro nukes have a tactical purpose, though nobody will ever talk about it,
and they can have very big consequences.

For example: the 'end' of the Korean war.

When the Americans/UN pushed back invading North Koreans all the way to the
Chinese border, the Chinese got fidgety and decided to join the fight. With
overwhelming numbers, mass casualties - no problem. The used bodies or bullets
- no matter, and pushed the Americans back.

It was Eisenhower who basically did a 'tactical nuke' demonstration (mind you
these were artillery based nukes) - as an indication that this is what he
would do if the Chinese pushed further.

Thus creating a kind of stalemate ... both sides weary of more war, there was
a 'ceasefire' put in place that exists to this day.

Yes, it's scary, but it's also a reality.

~~~
cafard
Eisenhower was not elected president until after well Ridgway had stabilized
the front and returned it to about where the current border is.

~~~
hga
I've heard at the rumor level that credible threats of nuclear bombing were
used to bring the PRC and DPRK to the negotiating table, or at least negotiate
seriously, one at the level of planes with armed nukes in the air on their way
to plastering a PRC marshaling area.

~~~
edblarney
Yes, regular nukes were in the area, at Guam I think ready to go.

But I think the tactical nuke demonstration is 'what done it'.

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hga
_The Davy Crockett’s timer allowed a minimum shot distance of about 1,000
feet, but such inept use of the weapon would certainly result in the deaths of
the firing team._

Just like how standard US style defensive fragmentation hand grenades are very
hard to throw beyond the distance they delivers lethal fragments? (That's what
defines a defensive hand grenade, vs. e.g. the famous German "potato masher"
offensive concussion grenades).

The author ought to do a little research into the concept of cover, like for
this case foxholes and slit trenches.

~~~
mrestko
Does a foxhole protect from the overpressure blast of a nuclear explosion?
With fragmentation grades, you're getting behind cover that will absorb the
shards before they hit you--cover can't do anything about a wave of pressure.

~~~
hga
It might if it had overhead cover, which became much more important in the
WWII era when proximity fuzes were released to the US Army during the Battle
of the Bulge, and you could add some extra dooring, but that would get in the
way of a quick entry.

On the other hand, we're only taking about 10-20 _tons_ , not kilo-tons, of
yield, so in pressure it's more like a Daisy Cutter or MOAB, or something
smaller that hit close, and there's lots of experience of that. It might well
be preferable to being overrun by a unit of the Red Army in the next few
minutes, but, obviously, selecting a target at > 1,000 meters would be a good
idea.

My general point, though, it that this weapon is held to be axiomatically
"crazy", when it's not in the context for which it was designed and fielded.

------
jenkstom
Well, I'm most of the way through the latest Jack Reacher novel, "Night
School". And now I know how it must end...

------
Shivetya
when people act as if the world is crazy today they have no idea what the
military and politicians were doing a scant fifty years ago.

people need to understand that the crazy they see today has been around for a
long time and those in power need to be kept in constant check

~~~
hga
What was "crazy" about the US making very concrete preparations like this one
for the threat of the Red Army pouring through the Fulda Gap into western
Europe? (e.g.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_\(nuclear_device\)#Development))

Now, Stalin and Khrushchev, you could well say they're crazy (the latter's
peers judged him so after the Cuban Missile Crisis), but one thing _seared_
into the minds of the Westerners fighting the Cold War in this period was the
price of ignoring people like them
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II)).

