Prairie Fire (U.S. military code)

Prairie Fire was the U.S. military’s covert nuclear attack plan during the Cold War, designed to counter a potential Soviet invasion of Europe. It involved a series of strategic nuclear strikes aimed at key Soviet military and economic targets in the USSR, intended to quickly weaken their capacity to wage war. The plan emphasized rapid, precise use of nuclear weapons to disrupt Soviet forces before they could fully mobilize or respond, and was kept highly classified to prevent adversaries from knowing the U.S. nuclear response strategy.