If Stalin didn’t stop at Berlin America would have eaten shit for like a year until they built more nukes which they had a monopoly on at the time.
They would have used them.
I don’t see a path to victory there unless it’s acceptable to be losing like two entire cities a year (I honestly have no idea how many nukes could be built a year at that time, I say two because that’s how many were built for Japan) to a nuclear and bloodthirsty empire in its prime.
I know it’s a meme. But I see it said enough I wanted to hear what people actually thought on the matter memes aside.
Edit: lots of good takes and I’ve learned some stuff, thanks for all the responses.
The US hadn't deindustrialised so it was still superior industrially anyway. Any conventional war would have needed a knockout blow from currently deployed Soviet forces. It's not like the US army didn't have their own advantages either, they would likely have had air superiority and Soviet AA systems weren't nearly as sophisticated relatively speaking as in the Cold War. Realistically, the window of opportunity there is far too short, and said window too tenuous to act on.
Tying into your industry point, an aircraft carrier was being built like every couple of month or so.
that one is slightly misleading because the fine text is that actual fleet carriers of the Essex class had at the shortest a lead time of 9 months, the Midways all took two years. the light/escort carriers were the ones that were being finished in a few months.
I believe you, but they were starting that lead time on new ship’s consistently. If the war continued they wouldn’t draw down production. Unless of course somebody managed to fuck up the shipyards or steel supply or some other necessary part of the supply line.
Edit: forgot to say thanks for correcting my misremembering on the class that referred to.