Dan ha scritto:

Somehow decisions on strategic defense were not made in the court of
public opinion, which is a good thing.

It was granted, no need for a debate back then. Yet as the notion of
proliferation creeps in, I bet a few European governments from the
list are getting nervous about the perspective of having to open a
public case, some day.


Why? In the Cold War several NATO allies who didn't have their own
nuclear weapons were loaned them so they could sit alert. The weapons
were always under positive control and have long since been returned to
the lending nations as far as I know. Proliferation from that point of
view is a non starter.

This is what I want to point in first place, but I was unsure about the
exact version of the F-104 involved (aleks, please ?) and I fear of
comparing apples with oranges, variant-wise, and I ended writing in a
broader terms.
Anyway, the basic fact remain that AFAICT only UK has the needs & means
to have single or double-key nukes with US support.

Best regards from Italy,
Dott. Piergiorgio.