it was still believed at the time, even before they exploded their first nuclear weapon, that the ussr has the capacity to build them. and like i said, it's more about the destructive capacity to humanity than anything else, nuclear weapons or not. but now that we have nuclear weapons they have become the defacto bar of destruction. after all, any non-nuclear nation can be more or less stopped in its tracks after it is bombarded with nuclear weapons.
Canada