Editing Sino-Soviet split (section)

==== US strategy on China's nuclear development ====
{{see also|Two Bombs, One Satellite}}
In the early 1960s, the United States feared that a "nuclear China" would imbalance the bi-polar Cold War between the US and the USSR. To keep the PRC from achieving the geopolitical status of a nuclear power, the US administrations of both [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] considered ways either to sabotage or to attack directly the [[China and weapons of mass destruction|Chinese nuclear program]] — aided either by [[Republic of China (1949-present)|Republic of China]] based in Taiwan or by the USSR. To avert nuclear war, Khrushchev refused the US offer to participate in a US-Soviet pre-emptive attack against the PRC.
<ref name="jstor2626706">{{cite journal |last1=Burr |first1=W. |last2=Richelson |first2=J. T. |year=2000–2001 |title=Whether to "Strangle the Baby in the Cradle": The United States and the Chinese Nuclear Program, 1960–64 |journal=International Security |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=54–99 |jstor=2626706 |url=https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/whether-strangle-baby-cradle-united-states-and-chinese-nuclear-program-1960-64 |doi=10.1162/016228800560525 |s2cid=57560352 |access-date=29 April 2019 |archive-date=30 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430032544/https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/whether-strangle-baby-cradle-united-states-and-chinese-nuclear-program-1960-64 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

To prevent the Chinese from building a nuclear bomb, the [[United States Armed Forces]] recommended indirect measures, such as diplomacy and propaganda, and direct measures, such as infiltration and sabotage, an invasion by the Chinese Nationalists in Taiwan, maritime blockades, a South Korean invasion of North Korea, conventional air attacks against the nuclear production facilities, and dropping a nuclear bomb against a "selected CHICOM [Chinese Communist] target".<ref>LeMay, Curtis. "A Study of Chinese Communist Vulnerability" (1963), in "Whether to 'Strangle the Baby in the Cradle": The United States and the Chinese Nuclear Program, 1960–64 (2000)</ref> On 16 October 1964, the PRC detonated their first nuclear bomb, a uranium-235 [[Nuclear weapon design|implosion-fission device]],<ref name=":0">[https://www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/16-october-1964-first-chinese-nuclear-test "16 October 1964 – First Chinese nuclear test: CTBTO Preparatory Commission"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222034939/https://www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/16-october-1964-first-chinese-nuclear-test/ |date=22 February 2020 }}. ''ctbto.org''. Retrieved 1 June 2017.</ref> with an explosive yield of 22 [[kiloton]]s of TNT;<ref>Oleg; Podvig, Pavel Leonardovich; Hippel, Frank Von (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=CPRVbYDc-7kC&pg=PA441 ''Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191017052346/https://books.google.be/books?id=CPRVbYDc-7kC&pg=PA441 |date=17 October 2019 }}. MIT Press. p. 441. {{ISBN|9780262661812}}.</ref> and publicly acknowledged the USSR's technical assistance in realizing [[596 (nuclear test)|Project 596]].<ref>{{cite web |title=CTBTO World Map |url=https://www.ctbto.org/map/#mode=nuclear |website=www.ctbto.org |access-date=31 January 2019 |archive-date=1 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201065733/https://www.ctbto.org/map/#mode=nuclear |url-status=live }}</ref>