ABSTRACT
The Chinese leadership may have had some foreknowledge that war would break out in Korea. If Chinese troops entered Korea, the United States “should not permit itself to become engaged in a general war with China.” The bombers were redeployed to continental United States before the Chinese entered the war. Nuclear weapons should only be used, however, under certain conditions, such as in the case of overt commitment of Chinese and Soviet forces in Korea, and only if they could assure a decisive military success. During the period from late October 1950 through January 1951, once their nation was committed to military intervention in Korea, the Chinese leadership set forth a systematic, integrated party line dealing with nuclear weapons. The part of the line on nuclear weapons that called for the condemnation and punishment for war criminality of any nation that used nuclear weapons predated China’s entry into the Korean War.
