A newly unveiled memo from the FBI’s archives has revealed that Winston Churchill urged the United States to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russia in an attempt to win the Cold War, believing that such an act could be the only way to stop the spread of communism to the west.

The memo details the way in which Churchill made his views about Russia known while visiting an American politician in 1947, the Daily Mail observes. Written by an FBI agent, the memo asserts that Churchill spoke with Styles Bridges, a Right-wing Republican senator, asking him to help persuade then-President Harry Truman to launch a nuclear strike against Russia.

According to the memo, Churchill believed that a pre-emptive strike against Russia was key to the future of civilization. Having lost his post as Prime Minister in 1945, Churchill was out of office at the time of the meeting.

“He pointed out that if an atomic bomb could be dropped on the Kremlin, wiping it out, it would be a very easy problem to handle the balance of Russia, which would be without direction,” the memo claims.

“Churchill further stated that if this was not done, Russia will attack the United States in the next two or three years when she gets the atomic bomb and civilization will be wiped out or set back many years.”

The Saturday Essay: Boris Johnson on why Winston Churchill still stands alone http://t.co/NCJyE43T1v (Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/syWBOb00hx — WSJ Life & Culture (@WSJLife) November 7, 2014

Russia would have been defenseless against a nuclear strike at the time Churchill was urging such an action, as the Soviets did not possess the atomic bomb until 1949. Churchill had already delivered a famous speech articulating the threat Russia presented in 1946, asserting that an “Iron Curtain” had fallen across Eastern Europe. Churchill was one of the first world leaders to recognize the post-war threat that Russia posed.

Winston Churchill firing a Thompson submachine gun, 1944 pic.twitter.com/HTM7cMDjoT — OnThisDay & Facts (@NotableHistory) November 8, 2014

The memo is set to be published for the first time in When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys, a new tome by investigative journalist Thomas Maier, out next month. As the Time notes, the volume also explores the relationship between Churchill and Joseph Kennedy, who was ambassador to Britain in the 1930s, as well as the connections that existed between the two families’ later generations.

Maier’s book isn’t the only one to recently address unseen aspects of Churchill’s life. London Mayor Boris Johnson recently published a work in which he compared Churchill to infamous dictators. As the Inquisitr noted, Johnson’s text asserts that Churchill was plagued by an insufferable ego, over-compensating for his short stature.

After Churchill returned to power in 1951, a nuclear attack against Russia was never again mentioned.

[Image: popperfoto via the Daily Mail]