Limited Nuclear War example essay topic

392 words
Mutual Assured Destruction - Doctrine McNamara, calm public opinion and contain the insatiable demands of the US military for nuclear weapons was known as assured destruction. - 1969, recognized that the Soviet Union could inflict an 'unacceptable' level of damage on the US and the word 'mutual' was added to the doctrine. - Assured destruction was there to deter an attack on the US and to contain the appetites of the US military for new weapons. - "Robert McNamara... talked of mutual assured destruction, invoking doomsday images of blowing the enemy population off the face of the earth... ".

Peter Pringle & William Arkin, "Nuclear War from the inside", Sphere Books, London, 1983. - Moscow, like Washington, persisted in its public declarations that nuclear war if 'imposed' on by its aggressors would be waged without limitations. - "We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will not be employed" President JFK, Inaugural address. The 'usability' of nuclear weapons: Berlin and Cuba - During the Berlin crisis of 1961, in which the West was at a hopeless disadvantage in conventional military forces at the point of confrontation, the option of a nuclear warning shot was considered by Kennedy's advisors and instantly rejected because of the risk of escalation.

- The Berlin Crisis petered out when Khrushchev realized that American intelligence, using newly available reconnaissance satellites, had discovered that the Soviet nuclear forces were extremely inadequate. - The most significant fact about the Cuban missile crisis - from the point of view of nuclear strategy - was that a limited nuclear war was not considered. - By 1962 the new SHOP was now in place with its various options for selective and limited nuclear attacks. He stated that the USA would regard 'any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against PAGE 184 The achievement of Strategic Parity Schlesinger and 'Flexible response Brown and 'countervailing strategy' Reagan and the strategic defense initiative America, NATO and the intermediate- Range nuclear forces debate Soviet rejection of 'limited Nuclear War' Gorbachev and reasonable sufficiency The Baruch Plan The 1959 Joint resolution The McCloy-Z orin agreement Bilateral arms control agreements The arms control Agenda transformed Arms control: from negotiation to implementation.