ABSTRACT
Since the end of World War II, when the United States (US) detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been an essential element of US military power. As the Soviet Union was soon recognized as America's major future potential future adversary, the main role of nuclear weapons was to deter Soviet aggression. However, the US had only one third of its strategic nuclear force based on land-based missiles of intercontinental range (ICBMs), and about 45 per cent at sea, where it was for all intents and purposes invulnerable. For decades one of the principal objectives of the Europeans in relations with the US had been to secure the protection of US strategic nuclear forces as the ultimate guarantee against Warsaw Pact aggression. A consensus developed very soon between Russia and the US that there should be only one nuclear successor state to the USSR, namely the Russian Federation.
