[Webstral]

Stalin was so anxious about the possibility of a Western assault following the surrender of Germany that he ordered rail lines across Poland torn up. It’s hard to imagine that the Soviets would have pressed for war against the US, whatever their ideological preferences might have been. Stalin’s advisors would have told him that the strategic situation was intolerable at the time.

The US mainland was untouchable by any weapons the Soviets possessed or were likely to make operational soon, whereas the US possessed a very large fleet of splendid four-engine bombers that could have reached targets in the western Soviet Union from bases in England, the Caucasus from bases in Egypt, and Central Asia from bases in India. All aid to the USSR from the US would have ceased immediately, of course. Stalin knew perfectly well that the US had operational atomic weapons by the time of the Potsdam conference. He also had to have some idea of the vast American industrial capacity.