maxq

My understanding is the Emperor wanted to surrender, the military did not.

We may never know.

[Please don't quote Reddit as a ref]

A "somewhat horrified Kissinger" when chatting to Nixon is comedy beyond Shakespeare!

You read that in a mainstream journal? You were played. You typed it yourself? You've been played. You dreamt it? You're a bard.

Or we could try:

1. Nuke city A

2. Demand unconditional surrender

3. Nuke city B

...

Seems Imperial Japan was prepared to go to vol 11 on this, so I don't think your approach would have worked, unfortunately.

Good catch - so, clearly it was a joke or an expression of cynical acceptance; nukes were never an option

I suspect the threat of a full-on nuke response to USSR or China, in all eventualities, was sensible ie don't even entertain the thought of any, even deniable or covert actions against us, although we all know we do it to you. Daily.

Cuba wasn't a 'tiff'. Deploying Soviet nukes to Cuba was an attempt to subvert MAD, which would have made WWIII more likely.

Not getting your Cheney thing. If he said it, was probably a joke. But I doubt it, since Iraq was an Ally at the time.

Nuking Japan likely saved millions of US/UK/AUS/NZ/CAD etc lives, so I don't think you've worked through the numbers, curiously, despite your moralistic, high-brow typing.