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MAD ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
After viewing MAD and engaging in the corresponding discussion questions and
activities, students will be able to answer the following:
1. What factors guided the military philosophies, strategies and technologies in the
United States and the Soviet Union during the 1960's?
2. What is Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)?
3. What were the results of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I)?
4.
How does MAD shed light on the broad themes of the Cold War?
Segment One
On July 1, 1960, a Russian MiG fighter shoots down an American RB-47 reconnaissance
plane over Soviet airspace. Two crewmembers parachute to safety-and imprisonment in
Moscow's Lubyanka prison; four other Americans die. On the front line, there is constant
vigilance. The Cold War is a war that goes on "24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Why did American airman John McCone refer to his RB-47 mission as a "milk run?"

According to Soviet pilot Vasili Poliakov, what were the RB-47's intentions?

How does this incident illustrate tensions during the Cold War?

What went through the minds of the missile crews on both sides of the Iron Curtain in
times of crisis?

How did Pearl Harbor affect U.S. Cold War military policy?

What conclusions can you draw from Tom Denchey's assessment of Soviet intentions
compared with General Mokrinsky's assessment of American intentions during the Cold
War?

Define "massive retaliation" and provide your thoughts about "massive retaliation" as a
military strategy.
Segment Two
"There was a syndrome to overtake, to show everyone that we weren't far behind the
Americans, that we too had nuclear weapons," says Soviet military strategist General
Larionov. Khrushchev breaks a moratorium on nuclear testing and on October 30, 1961,
drops a bomb with a yield of nearly 60 megatons, or 60 million tons of TNT, more than all the
explosives used in WWII. In the West, public opinion turns in favor of nuclear disarmament.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara proposes an alternative war fighting strategy: Soviet
cities are no longer to be targeted; American weapons are to strike only at Soviet military
forces. This plan is known as "No Cities/Counterforce." (FYI: The United States conducted
1,030 nuclear weapons tests between 1945 and 1992, detonating a total of 1,125 devices.
U.S. Department of Energy)

What can you infer from Khrushchev's breaking of the moratorium on nuclear testing?

What evidence can you list for President Kennedy's justification for developing nuclear
weapons?

Based on the eyewitness accounts, describe in your own words how it might have felt to
observe a nuclear explosion firsthand?

What was the basis for the demands of nuclear disarmament campaigners?

In the 1960's, McNamara presided over a massive buildup of U.S. forces and nuclear
warheads. In his interview, however, he states that "nuclear weapons have no military
utility whatsoever, excepting only to deter one's opponent from their use." How does he
account for the change in opinion?

What were the arguments for and against "No Cities/Counterforce?" What do you predict
could happen as a result of this strategy?
Segment Three
In 1962, Khrushchev sends Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba. Kennedy orders a blockade and
puts his forces around the world on alert. Following a series of tense negotiations,
Khrushchev removes the missiles. Shocked at how close they had come to nuclear war,
Moscow and Washington install a "Hot Line" between them. The following summer the Soviet
Union, the United States and Great Britain sign the Limited Test Ban Treaty. They agree to
ban atmospheric tests; nuclear testing would continue, but underground.

How did the Cuban Missile Crisis illustrate, as Anatoly Dobrynin suggests, "how close to
the edge of the nuclear precipice the world was standing?"

What was the impetus for the Limited Test Ban Treaty? What were the results? Based on
the goal and the outcome, how would you rate its success?
Segment Four
By 1964, Robert McNamara concludes that as the Soviet Union continues to build up its
nuclear forces, the Americans can no longer destroy all the Soviet forces. According to
eyewitness William Lee, "McNamara became convinced that the only way to have stable
deterrence in the world was for both sides to be able to kill 25 to 50 percent of the other's
population." This theory, says Lee, becomes known as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
Civil defense is taken seriously in the Soviet Union, though less so in the United States.

What led McNamara to accept Mutually Assured Destruction?

What is meant by deterrence?
o
How would you deter someone from picking a fight with you or deter someone from
committing a crime?
o
What would deter one country from attacking the other?
o
What is Robert McNamara's definition of deterrence?

According to William Lee, what is the objective of war?

Do you agree or disagree?

Do you think that MAD contradicts the objectives of war?

How would McNamara answer that question?

How might the Soviet leaders have answered that question?

What criteria would you use to evaluate MAD as a military theory?

What is civil defense? How do you account for the change in attitude from the "Duck and
Cover" exercises and the bomb shelters of the 1950's?
Segment Five
A U.S. plane carrying four hydrogen bombs collides with a tanker aircraft over the coast of
Spain in 1967. Three bombs fall on land and one is lost at sea. Radioactive plutonium
contaminates the village of Palomares. This is the fourteenth such American accident, or
"Broken Arrow," since 1950. The Soviet Union works to develop the anti-ballistic missile
(ABM). According to one Soviet eyewitness, the ABM is intended as an "umbrella" that would
protect the population in cities and towns against a possible missile strike. The Americans
have been developing an ABM system but McNamara convinces President Johnson to
abandon ABMs if the Soviets agree to do the same. (FYI: The cost of the accident over
Palomares was $182 million, including two lost planes, an extended search and recovery
effort, waste disposal in the U.S. and settlement claims. Source: Center for Defense
Information)

How did the accident over Spain illustrate the dangers of nuclear weapons, even in
peacetime? What assumptions can you make about how seriously the U.S. government
took this incident?

How did government actions in Palomares compare with the public reaction of
Ambassador Biddle Duke? How do you account for his reaction?

What is a "Broken Arrow?"

What inferences can you make regarding the actual number of "Broken Arrows"
throughout the Cold War?

In addition to "Broken Arrows," what other accidents are possible in a nuclear world?

What is an ABM?

Based on the accounts of Col. General Yuri Votintsev and Nikolai Detinov, what were the
Soviet goals in building the ABM?

According to eyewitness accounts, how did the ABM destabilize the system of Mutually
Assured Destruction?
Segment Six
To reduce tensions caused by the 1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East, President Johnson
and Soviet Premier Kosygin agree to meet in Glassboro, New Jersey. McNamara wants the
Soviets to abandon ABMs. Kosygin wants the U.S. to reduce its "aggressive missiles." The
United States develops Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs) to
overwhelm the Soviet defense system. By 1969, the superpowers are spending more than
$50 million a day on nuclear weapons. As a result of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the
superpowers agree to limit ABMs and temporarily freeze missile launchers. In the 1970s,
America and Russia add 12,000 nuclear warheads to their missile forces.

What was on the agenda for the superpower meeting at Glassboro?

How do you interpret the different perspectives of Johnson and Kosygin on the
importance of ABMs?

According to Yuri Votintsev, what effect did MIRVs have on the Soviet ABM system?

Based on eyewitness descriptions, what was the Soviet philosophy throughout SALT?

How did Dobrynin and Kissinger use the "backchannel" during SALT?

Why do you think the backchannel was used?

What was the goal of SALT? What agreements resulted from the talks? What issues
were left unresolved? How would you decide if SALT was a success?