Soviet Union planned Nuclear attack on China (1969)?

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7720461/USSR-planned-nuclear-attack-on-China-in-1969.html

[Bostana]

I really don't think that the USSR would nuke China at that date and time.

[ColonelCossack]

That makes revleft tendency wars look... small.

But seriously I'm very skeptical.

[Lev Bronsteinovich]

Uh, some guy in China comes out with this now? And the Chinese archives don't really have standing here -- the Soviet Archives might. It seems highly dubious at best. Does not fit in at all with Soviet foreign policy at the time.

[Psy]

I highly doubt NATO would have got involved even if the USSR used nukes against China, we are talking shortly after China crushed NATO in Korea (NATO was planning to nuke China itself so it could annex North Korea). Odds are if the USSR nuked China, NATO would have also used nukes against China to annex North Korea and raced against the USSR to grab territory from China hoping they could avoid a direct conflict against the USSR.

[lombas]

The timing corresponds with the Soviet-Sino Border War, but I highly doubt the Soviet Union would blow up that issue by nuking China, a natural ally in the cold war and in the coming talks with Nixon.

[KlassWar]

I'm skeptical, too. Didn't the Soviets have a no first use doctrine since, like, ever?

[Nox]

I wouldn't trust anything in the Telegraph tbh