[Hairog]

Slightly less far fetched than Stalin pointing a loaded revolver at his head and pulling the trigger, because his spy master told him "it only has 5 bulltets".

Ha. Good analogy. But I need something better to justify the campaign.

Keep this in mind...according to Plan Griddle the Joint Chiefs of staff themselves figured it would take 70 nukes to bring the USSR to it's knees.

So to me the analogy is more like this. Stalin sees his former allies as a threat and they have a loaded machine gun pointed in his direction. Currently they are in the same room and there are 70 men, women and children between him and that machine gun. He then finds out that there are only 6 bullets in that machine gun instead of 70 or more needed to make sure that he is killed. If he can move fast enough and get those people to force that machine gun out of the room they will not be able to threaten him again. In addition they will not be able to shoot at him without killing some of those people. In effect they are his hostages. He knows that his former allies have shown great reluctance in the past to killing innocent people.

Stalin is a proven mass murderer who has already kill millions of his own people including many of his most loyal and talented military leaders. He is a sociopath with no remorse that only cares about his own wants and needs. He is one of the most ruthless people who have ever lived. He has a massive ego that constantly needs reinforcement. His only immediate concern is his own life.

In his mind the best way he can prevent a nuclear bomb from incinerating him personally is to put enough distance and innocent people between him and that bomb. He needs to make sure he personally is out of range from any delivery system yet devised that can carry a nuke. The only delivery system with that capability in 1946 is the B29 because of the huge bulk of "Fat Man" and "Little Boy". He needs to drive the allied army into the sea.

Stalin is only concerned about his personal well being and invading Europe is the best way to keep the distance he needs to feel safe. The only thing holding him back and gaining that space is the impression that you have enough bombs to climb back out of the hole that Europe would become and get into range to take him out. Now he finds out that you only have 10% of what you think you need to do this.

In his mind it's now or never. He has to move before you get those other 63 bullets and he has to put enough innocent lives between you and he to make it morally repugnant for you to use those bullets to get to him in the next room.