What if Eisenhower uses tactical nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phu, in 1954?

That's what the Pentagon advised him to do. The generals suggested he use three atomic bombs to completely exterminate the enemy forces at Dien Bien Phu. A nuclear attack would have "taught the Chinese a lesson", according to the generals. No doubt, it would have. It probably would have taught Nikita Krushchev and the Soviets a few lessons too. The question is, what exactly would they have been? Several years later, the generals were still saying going nuclear in Vietnam would have been a good idea. Eisenhower decided against this, of course, probably assisted in this decision by a clear veto from the British. It seems that no matter how nostalgic the British may be, they still don't really want to go back to Stonehenge. Not really. The fact is, to stage a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, in this age prior to ICBM's, it was necessary to have bases in Europe. Nuclear Bomber range was only about 2,000 miles. No bases in Europe, no possibility of a nuclear attack on European Russia. So, if it looked like the U.S. was getting a little trigger happy with nuclear weapons, Krushchev might have had little choice but to overrun Europe, simply to defend himself.