von Neumann on bombing the Soviet Union

["Abu Rizvi" <srizvi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My information on this topic is from William Poundstone, Prisoner's
Dilemma, Doubleday, 1992:

The "preventive war" doctrine was championed by both vN and Bertrand
Russell, and the concept was discussed in the UK and US press during
esp. 1947-55.  VN was quoted in Life magazine:

"If you say why not bomb them tomorrow, I say why not today?  If you
say today at 5 o'clock, I say why not one o'clock?"  (Poundstone, p.
4).  VN said this in 1950, apparently.  The quote appears in the Life
magazine obituary by Clay Blair, Jr., in 1957.

Blair also cites a "famous Von Neumann observation at that time":
"With the Russians it is not a question of whether but of when."

VN had a fully developed approach to military strategy in the nuclear
age:  a report called Defense in Atomic War (1955).