ABSTRACT
Victory imbued the Soviet Union with a conviction that it could achieve anything through sacrifice and it could not be defeated militarily, something which Churchill found utterly alarming. On 2 March 1946, the US Joint War Plans Committee produced a draft of Operation Pincher. Whereas Operation Unthinkable singled out Poland as the main target, Pincher targeted the Middle East. The threat of conflict with Tito in Venezia Giulia, northeast Italy, brought British and American military planners together for the first time in August 1946, and the British revealed details of Operation Unthinkable for the first time and the Americans likewise of Operation Pincher. The two key countries were Turkey and Iran and a confrontation there could lead to Third World War III. With the Cold War beginning, Stalin instructed communist parties not to attempt to seize power as such behaviour could ignite Third World War III.
