In Reply to: Dilemas posted by Victor Khomenko on May 25, 2001 at 15:10:46:
Hi Victor,
your last sentence is wonderful, few realise how difficult that decison was for Truman. As to nuclear strategy, and therefore,policy...i would like to make an observation. In war, traditionally, there are goals. You conquer a country to make it yours, that sort of thing. With nuclear weapons, you don't have traditional military objectives; you destroy. People have reacted to these weapons quite differently than they have other weapons Man has devised. Which is understandable, because the level of destruction
is so very much greater, that the notion of war is replaced with an awareness of annihilation. In mock drills simulating WW3, during the Cold War, people broke under the stress, one man from the State dept who was unexpectedly thrown into such a simulation died from a heart attack.
Regardless of the conditions of the simulation, people involved in these simulations typically followed the same pattern of decision. They chose a minimalist path, often not retialiating at all; seeking a
resolution that did not involve killing millions. Oppie was right, 'We have become Shiva' Fortunately, most of us instinctively recoil in horror.
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Follow Ups
- nuclear policy - late 20:32:13 05/25/01 (7)
- Never satisfied - Bruce from DC 14:01:05 05/26/01 (6)
- August 15 1940- a seemingly insignificant date. - john dem 17:44:02 05/26/01 (3)
- Supposedly........ - Chris Garrett 02:21:44 05/29/01 (2)
- Re: Supposedly........ - john dem 06:03:22 05/29/01 (0)
- stimulus/response - late 16:42:12 05/26/01 (1)
- way off topic here, but so what . . . - Bruce from DC 17:34:21 05/26/01 (0)