United States Soviet Union Operation Dropshot was the United States Department of Defense code name for a contingency plan for a possible nuclear and conventional war with the Soviet Union and its allies in order to counter the anticipated Soviet takeover of Western Europe, the Near East and parts of Eastern Asia expected to begin about 1957.

At the time, the US nuclear arsenal was limited in size, based mostly in the United States, and depended on bombers for delivery.

The scenario was devised prior to the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and included the note that the plan would be invalidated if rocketry became a cheap and effective means of delivering nuclear weapons.

The documents were later declassified and published as Dropshot: The American Plan for World War III Against the Soviet Union in 1957.

[1] Never approved, Dropshot was withdrawn in February 1951 and superseded by Reaper, a plan that anticipated a war in 1954.