The American Cold War strategy which could have plunged the world into a nuclear conflict

A DECLASSIFIED military plan reveals that America was prepared to plunge the world into a nuclear conflict just as World War 2 had been brought to an end.

Plan Totality was the name given to a last-ditch nuclear strategy cooked up by American generals in the wake of the Second World War.

Despite the successes of Soviet and American cooperation in toppling Nazi Germany, the conclusion of the war put relations between the two superpowers on ice.

The former Allies fell out when America began to suspect that the then-Soviet Union was plotting to sweep into the charred remains of the European continent to conquer it themselves.

Fearing global domination by the USSR, America prepared for the worst and hatched a number of military plans and simulations designed to beat back a Russian invasion of Western Europe.

Plan Totality was established by US General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the summer of 1945, following the Potsdam Conference - where the Allies decided how to carve up defeated Germany.

The chilling strategy involved plans to obliterate 20 Soviet cities with America's newly-tested atomic arsenal.

Moscow, Leningrad and Stalinsk were all in the American firing line, with military planners claiming that all of the biggest Soviet cities could be wiped out in one surprise strike.

Between 20 and 30 atomic bombs were set to be dropped if it came to it - a move which could have resulted in Russia and America wiping each other off the map.

However, all was not as it seemed, and the supposedly secret plan ended up leaked to the world soon after it was drawn up.

In fact, America didn't have anywhere near 20 atomic bombs at the time, and only had 27 bombers capable of delivering the few devices available.

The real genius of Plan Totality was that it was a complete bluff, which was deliberately leaked with the intention of tricking the USSR into thinking that America's military was more powerful than it really was.

Plan Totality was just one component of then-President Truman's "Giant Atomic Bluff", a military strategy aimed at scaring America's enemies into submission.

Unfortunately, the USSR saw through it, prompting the arms race which could have resulted in the death of billions.

Today, as the UK works on reintroducing our Cold War nuclear warning system, examining military plans like Plan Totality can shed an alarming light on the realities of a global nuclear conflict.

Just as chilling is the 1949 follow up to Plan Totality - known as Operation Dropshot - which reveals how the US was really ready to obliterate the USSR with terrifying force.

And we also recently revealed details of the chilling plans drawn up by Soviet generals to survive an all-out war with NATO and conquer the remains of the European continent.