Was there really a list of cities in order that the communist missiles were aimed to destroy?

Question

I heard a lot in the day about cities being "fifth on the list," for example, and I just wondered if there was a list per se, or was it all supposed to happen at once? My hometown had a lot of chemical plants, so we were supposedly "high on the list." Considering the size of that town (Charleston WV) I cant believe we were even on the Soviet maps! Probably part of the general paranoia, right?

Answer 1

During the "Cold War" each of the super powers had their own lists. They were listed by importance of sustaining the maximum damage to limit retaliation and continue the war effort.

“Top Of The List Cities” were prioritized based on strategic importance such as governing bodies, eliminating retaliation efforts and communications.

Don’t think for one minute that those types of lists do not exist even now and are in the hands of our current enemies as well.

The only major difference I see now is that during the Cold War, most super powers really did NOT want to “push the button” and understood the world wide repercussions of doing such a thing. Our enemies today are religious fanatics and don’t have any conscience about world wide repercussions making them more dangerous.

Answer 2

Hard to say, without detailed declassified docs, or a Russian defector ( probably where we got info from anyway, on a List ). I'm sure most people could figure out that New York, LA, Miami, Washington DC, Chicago, etc. were all high on the list of ANY target list. Sure, why NOT West Virginia, a big chemical plant area, it would devastate the region, some might blow to DC, and some of the supposedly secret places of Congress was Greenbriar in WV, the Russians probably knew that, too. There was paranoia, but some of it was undoubtedly real, and we will probably never know about it.
- The Gremlin Guy -

Answer 3

YES. Targets were ranked by strategic importance...

US Missile sites
US Command, Control Communication sites
US Strategic Bases
Other US Military Sites
MAJOR Population / Economic Centers
Population Centers

Sunnyvale, California was going quick: NAS Moffett Field, NAS Alameda, NS Mare Island, USAF Communications, and Silicon Valley.

I can neither confirm nor deny the existance of equivalent lists or maps on behalf of the US Military.

Answer 4

Yes, there was a list.

Generally, at that time, nukes were pre-aimed. The targets were pre-selected. IA nuclear war was in fact pretty much pre-programmed since there would be little time to react once the other side started it. Event by USSR would trigger an event by USA which would trigger an event by USSR, spiraling closer and closer to MAD (mutually assured destruction), or vice versa. While we feared worldwide destruction of human life, reality is that it wouldn't have destroyed all life in the countries involved.

It is not difficult to figure out what would be higher on a target list than others. Chemical production would be a target. Towns smaller than Charlestown were on their maps. In fact, it would be easy for them to know every town in America and they had them on their maps. Targeting was based on doing maximum damage to as many things that could be later used in warfare against the side shooting those missiles (and vice versa). Hence there would be heirarchy to what would be important to destroy as well as a list.

Answer 5

Since the fall of hte Soviet Union much data about the strategic planning of its nuclear defenses has been released.

It is important that one time they had over 7,000 warhead pointed at the US alone and few, if any, small- to medium-sized cities would not have been targeted.

Answer 6

The Pentagon used their best judgement to draw up a list of where they thought the Soviets would be likely to bomb, if it ever came to that. As someone who grew up in the Detroit area, I knew that it was high on that list.

Answer 7

Yes there was list. About 15 KM from my home was old CCCR missel base. Somewon sad that this missiles was aimed on Paris.

Answer 8

No, probably not paranoia. When you're dealing with tens of thousands of warheads.. even small towns make the list.

Answer 9

as far as i know there were an actual list of sites that would be on the hit list. because i know that misslies just wont hit any area they are usally aimed at a target

Answer 10

i"ve heard that any city with a population of over 250,000, known military bases, ICBM silos, and command bunkers (eg NORAD and Omaha) were targeted. Some were targeted more than ten or more times...redundant targeting as it were.