Fracture Jaw was a top-secret U.S. military contingency plan in which General

William C. Westmoreland William Childs Westmoreland (March 26, 1914 – July 18, 2005) was a United States Army general, most notably commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from ...

sought to ensure that

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

s would be available for use in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Planning began in 1968 and included moving nuclear weapons into

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

so that they could be used on short notice against North Vietnamese troops. In spite of moves towards activating the plan, the project was abandoned in February 1968 after public statements by

Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...

and others claimed that the U.S. was preparing to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam.

In popular culture

Operation Fracture Jaw is featured in Treyarch's 2020 video game, '' Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War''.

References

External links

* * Vietnam War 1968 disestablishments United States Department of Defense plans United States nuclear command and control Cancelled military operations involving the United States {{US-mil-stub