Chinese Nuclear Facilities

In late 1963 and throughout much of 1964 the US government considered possible military actions to destroy Chinese nuclear weapons facilities, in advance of the first Chinese nuclear weapons test. A relatively heavy non-nuclear air attack would have been required to put installations "permanently" out of business (i.e., destroy them so completely that any rebuilding effort would have to start virtually from scratch). Covert action seemed to offer the politically most feasible form of action. Direct action against the Chinese Communist nuclear facilities would, at best, put them out of operation for a few years (perhaps four to five).