Nuclear Weapons Policy, Planning and War Objectives: Toward a Theater-Oriented Deterrent Strategy

摘要

The U.S. strategic nuclear policy debate has for years been marked by confusion and chaos. Despite the investment of considerable analytic effort, planners remain deeply divided on basic issues relating to budgets, force structure choices, employment strategies, arms control concepts, and the like. This basic dilemma is as follows. On the one hand, nuclear weapons cannot serve national objectives in the same ways that other military forces can. On the other hand, like it or not, both the United States and Soviet Union maintain large nuclear forces, and, for reasons I will list it is imperative to plan for their use.