Word: nuclear
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Another set of arguments goes beyond technology into strategy and diplomacy. Throughout the postwar period, the U.S. has based its main defense on "assured destruction"?the ability to inflict catastrophic damage on any opponent (until now, the Soviet Union) even if the adversary delivered the first nuclear blow. This second-strike capability has induced the U.S. to maintain an immense nuclear arsenal, far larger and more diverse than that of the Russians...
...existence in a future confrontation, say with a bellicose nation that has a few primitive missiles, would allow the U.S. a third alternative other than acquiescing to blackmail or being forced to devastate the antagonist. The U.S. could employ conventional forces in a local situation, knowing that a small nuclear attack could be blunted...
...Administration is what effect a deployed ABM system would have on U.S.-Soviet nuclear competition or possible cooperation. In the past, the "action-reaction phenomenon" has been the controlling factor. Each side, responding to traditional military prudence, has sought to counter real or prospective advances by the other. The result has been an enormous overkill capacity beyond "mutual assured destruction...
...office, McNamara acknowledged that, overall, the U.S. had spent too much on weaponry during his tenure because of mistaken estimates of Russian intentions. However, the Russians have accelerated their buildup, tripling their supply of land-based missiles in little more than two years. The U.S. remains ahead in overall nuclear-delivery capability, but Russia continues to close...
...nuclear race has spawned an arcane jargon of its own, one that proliferates as fast as the gadgetry that it describes. A thesaurus of key terms...