Maybe that is because the scale of nuclear weapons’ destructiveness makes their practical military use unthinkable in almost any conceivable circumstances. Maybe it is just the well-understood ethical taboo that inhibited even US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles: Had the US used nuclear weapons in Korea or Vietnam, or against China over Taiwan, Dulles said, “we’d be finished as far as present-day world opinion was concerned.”
Le président de la Russie, Vladimir Poutine, sait que l’Ukraine n’oserait pas plus utiliser l’arme atomique contre Moscou que les États-Unis pour rétorquer à l’envoi de chars d’assaut en Crimée ou même à Dnipropetrovsk.