undefined | Better HN

0 pointsskywhopper12y ago0 comments

MAD was/is all a mental game to avoid a first strike. But once that happens, the calcuation is moot. In the event of a surprise attack by the USSR, the better result for the planet and humanity would have been for the US not to fire its own missiles.

0 comments

4 comments · 1 top-level

arethuza12y ago· 3 in thread

"In the event of a surprise attack by the USSR"

I find it interesting that everyone always talks about surprise attacks by the USSR - in reality the USSR spent most of the Cold War terrified of a strike by its enemies (both the West and China). Indeed, as far as I know only one side in the Cold War had military leaders who wanted to start a nuclear war - guess which one?

NB The only possible exception to this was the Able Archer 83 incident when the Soviets thought the US was going to conduct a first strike ("Evil Empire" rhetoric etc.) and they almost pre-empted this with their own strike - but that was the terror of senile geriatrics, not a deliberate plan.

KMag12y ago

> as far as I know only one side in the Cold War had military leaders who wanted to start a nuclear war - guess which one?

I'd be interested in seeing a citation for this fact.

Edit: Curtis LeMay secretly advocated preemptive strikes if it became clear the Soviets were preparing a first strike. This is different from "wanting" nuclear war.

arethuza12y ago

The reference I specifically remember (although I have read others) is in "Dark Sun" by Richard Rhodes. LeMay ordered overflights over the USSR and commented:

"Well, maybe if we do this overflight right, we can get World War III started."

I don't have my copy of Dark Sun handy, but there is a reference to the incident in this review:

http://www.geoffwisner.com/index.php/book_reviews/article/?t...

LeMay's belief in a "preventative" war was oddly rational - he believed that a conflict between the US and the USSR was inevitable and that therefore that US should strike before the USSR posed a strategic threat to the US (which it didn't really do until the mid 60s at the earliest).

Rhodes writes about the Cuban Missile Crisis:

"If John Kennedy had followed LeMay's advice, history would have forgotten the Nazis and their terrible Holocaust. Ours would have been the historic omnicide".

brorfred12y ago

This seems to at least be a good start: http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Did_the_US...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse