Russia And China Almost Had A Nuclear War In 1969

Photo: China's first nuclear test in 1964 set off a series of dominoes that almost convinced Russia to nuke it. (Public domain)

We Are The Mighty: One of the closest brushes with nuclear war was Russia vs China

As they're now America's two top rivals, it's easy to forget that China and Russia aren't allies and actually have decades of regional rivalry and have been at each other's throats more than once. In fact, in 1970, the Soviet Union started asking around about whether or not anyone would really care if they launched a preemptive nuclear strike against China.

Ya know, for world security and all that.

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WNU Editor: Even though Chinese - Russian relations are considered to be very good today, the historical and cultural mistrust still exists. Not trusting the east is deeply embedded in the Russian soul, and that is probably what propelled the Soviet leadership at the time to contemplate launching a nuclear strike against China. It fortunately did not happen, but that mistrust still exists, even though the leadership in both countries today are trying their best to forge better ties.

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