The existence of the red mercury nuclear weapon, hailed as a Cold War artifact, has always been a confusing mystery, so much so that in 2015 an extremist organization that attempted to establish religious fundamentalism in the Middle East regarded it as a "holy object" to strike against Western countries.
The red mercury nuclear bomb is a miniaturized nuclear fusion tactical weapon. It uses antimony as a neutron source, which is much smaller than the neutron source used in general atomic bombs. In addition, thermonuclear fusion has no critical mass limit, which makes the entire nuclear bomb very small and light. Generally, a small red mercury nuclear bomb may have a small volume and area, but the explosive equivalent can reach an incredible level, which can easily kill tens of millions of people within a range.
Miniaturized nuclear weapons mean that you can put them in a briefcase and carry them to any public place you want to go, such as sports markets, airports, hotels, and if possible, you can even bring them into the Pentagon and the White House. Imagine that the White House and the Pentagon, which symbolize American power, were attacked by nuclear weapons at the same time. The political foundation of the entire country could be paralyzed in an instant.
Although the Soviets were so obsessed with this mythical weapon, and according to American intelligence, the Soviet Union might have developed this weapon that would change the bipolar situation, but Yanayev knew that the red mercury nuclear bomb had always remained in the theoretical stage, and the plan was shelved indefinitely after failing to overcome certain technical difficulties.
And now the Soviet Union was ready to use this non-existent weapon to intimidate the West.
Yanayev was also very aware of the impact of psychological warfare, such as the non-existent Star Wars program proposed by the Reagan administration, which dragged down the Soviet economy with the space arms race. So Yanayev canceled all plans to deal with the Strategic Defense Agreement as soon as he came to power, and likened these projects to being as stupid as the American Stargate program.
"Decades of confrontation between the East and the West, as well as the mutual infiltration of intelligence, gave rise to various intelligence spies, the so-called products of the Cold War." Ogarkov briefly introduced his strategy to Yanaev. "The Americans want to obtain our intelligence, and to a large extent they rely on this intelligence network. For example, if we have long wanted to obtain intelligence from the United States on the engine technology of launch vehicles, as long as the Americans know what intelligence we want to obtain, they can analyze some of the insurmountable difficulties in our engine technology, and then draw inferences from one example to another, and thus figure out which of our projects cannot be completed and which are just smokescreens. It will be clear at a glance."
"You mean that our spies suddenly infiltrated the United States with antimony intelligence that they might not even have, and then attracted the attention of the CIA intelligence department?" Yanaev didn't quite understand Ogarkov's idea. "Isn't this equivalent to telling the Americans that we don't have fully mature technology in red mercury reaction?"
"How can we make the Americans realize that this is antimony bomb information so quickly? We must start with temperature and pressure. In addition to using antimony bomb as a neutron source, temperature and pressure are also crucial." Ogarkov paused and explained to Yanaev's puzzled eyes, "This way, we can convince the Americans that we are really developing antimony bomb as a suitcase nuclear bomb."
"When the Americans have almost figured out that our real intention is to obtain antimony technology, we will immediately stop all intelligence infiltration and put all KGB agents in 'radio silence'." Ogarkov is also an expert in psychological intelligence strategy and has a thorough understanding of the psychology of the top leaders of the US Intelligence Agency. "Stop intelligence infiltration means that we no longer need the US's secret technology. In this way, the Americans will think that we have made great progress in antimony technology. Then we can deliberately throw some fake intelligence to the Americans to make them more suspicious."
Ogarkov became more and more excited as he spoke, as if he had returned to the days when he was advising the Soviet Presidium. Yanaev had sent away the other people in the room long before Ogarkov opened his mouth. These could be said to be secrets among the top leaders, and only Yanaev and Ogarkov knew about them.
"At the same time, the Soviet government's attitude must become increasingly tough. It would be best if we could make the Americans believe that we are ready to launch World War III at any time. In this way, the deceptive goal of the non-existent red mercury nuclear bomb would be achieved. The Americans would think that we have created this Cold War artifact and would not dare to act rashly, thus buying us a certain external relaxed environment and time to restore our own strength."
"It's a pity that no matter how amazing the strategy is, it is just a helpless act." Ogarkov took off his glasses and wiped them slowly. He thought of Brezhnev's desperate efforts to export oil, which led to the current deformed economic model of the Soviet Union, and shook his head helplessly.
"These are all helpless measures. Our economy is facing unsolvable difficulties. The rigid system and the accumulated drawbacks are all urgent problems that need to be solved. The current government can only desperately think of some ways to make up for the lack of time." Yanayev had a headache when he thought that the Soviet economy would rely on oil and arms in the future. It was obvious that this was not the scientific democratic socialism he wanted to establish. The Soviet economic development should not be solved by relying on some energy exports. The Soviet people were still not full of food, the country was still short of money, and the external environment was still worse than expected.
The development of the multi-ownership economy, which was criticized by conservatives as undermining the essence of the Soviet Union and betraying the spirit of Marxism-Leninism, was also restricted. Few people responded to the pilot cities opened by Yanayev. He even launched a tax exemption and subsidy policy, but still failed to attract the capitalists he hoped to come. In the final analysis, they were still worried about the new measures of the Soviet Union. They were afraid that the communist Soviet Union would change its leadership one day and adopt a different policy.
It seems that the slogan of focusing on economic development and promoting the common progress of various ownership economies should be put on the parliamentary agenda and written into the party constitution. Once the national policy is determined, the president can do whatever he wants.
"When can I return to the General Staff? After all, there is still a group of Soviet parasites there that need to be dealt with. They are also one of the main culprits for the collapse of the Soviet economy." Ogarkov, who was obsessed with the exclusion in earlier years, would not wait any longer to add insult to injury. He immediately listed several young generals that Yanaev had his eyes on.
So Yanayev knew what Ogarkov was thinking, so he rejected Ogarkov's request and threatened him, "Don't think about the dangerous idea of using the army to control the Communist Party. I cherish your talent, Marshal Ogarkov, but if you go too far, I'm afraid you won't even have a free time as the director general, and I don't mind throwing you into prison at all."