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	Mutual assured destruction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender.
		The term MAD was not coined by the military but was, however, based on the policy of "Assured Destruction" advocated by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara during the 1960s.
		MAD was implied in a number of U.S. policies and used in the political rhetoric of leaders in both the USA and the USSR during many periods of the Cold War.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction (2145 words)

	In the Shadow of Mad
		They thought the Assured Destruction plan would not only set budgetary limits for strategic forces but satisfy critics who said that a minimum number of weapons was all the US needed for deterrence, as opposed to the huge and complex arsenal needed for the more militarily ambitious "no cities" approach.
		MAD's true burial would likely require a change in the relationship between the US and Russia, one that would make the prospect of a nuclear weapons exchange no more likely than nuclear war between America and Britain.
		Despite Assured Destruction, the enemy might not be totally rational and may elect to engage in a nuclear war.
	www.afa.org /magazine/nov2001/1101mad.asp (3874 words)

	Defense Issues: Vol. 10, No. 3-- Pursuing a Strategy of Mutual Assured Safety (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		MAD has been compared to two men standing 10 feet apart, each of them holding a revolver pointed at the other man's head.
		We are now pursuing a strategy of mutual assured safety, which is based on cooperation and builddown of weapons, instead of competition and buildup.
		As the ongoing tragedy in Chechnya makes all too clear, political stability is not assured in Russia, and a reversal of reform could result in an authoritarian militaristic regime hostile to the West and a regime which still possessed 25,000 nuclear weapons.
	www.defenselink.mil /speeches/1995/s19950105-perry.html (4609 words)

	The Strategy of Technology - Chapter 6
		This was defined as the capability to assure the destruction of some specified fraction of the population and industry of the potential enemy after the U.S. Strategic Offensive Forces (SOF) had absorbed the best possible attack the enemy could launch.
		The benefits of a strategy of Assured Survival are presented in outline form on Chart 15.
		In summary, given acceptance of a strategy of assured survival, we must consider active defense and strategic counterforce weapons as the means for achieving that posture.
	www.jerrypournelle.com /sot/sot_6.htm (10629 words)

	Nuclear Files: Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: History: Cold War: Strategy: Mutual Assured Destruction
		Mutual Assured Destruction began to emerge at the end of the Kennedy administration.
		MAD reflects the idea that one's population could best be protected by leaving it vulnerable so long as the other side faced comparable vulnerabilities.
		When MAD lost its domestic credibility, the Reagan administration promised to work toward Mutual Assured Security (MAS) instead of relying on MAD.
	www.nuclearfiles.org /menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm (269 words)

	CNN Cold War - Episode Script: MAD
		Mutual assured destruction is the foundation of deterrence.
		It was an extremely survivable assured destruction capability that the Soviets knew they could not destroy and knew that if they conducted a first strike, that system would some day be available to retaliate.
		The Russian military were unconvinced by McNamara's notion of "assured destruction." They saw it as their first duty to protect their homeland.
	www.cnn.com /SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/12/script.html (4563 words)

	Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
		Mutual assured destruction is not a part of this concept of deterrence.
		They seek weapons of mass destruction to intimidate their neighbors and to keep the United States and other responsible nations from helping allies and friends in strategic parts of the world.
		It was premised on a relationship of distrust and mutually assured destruction.
	www.carnegieendowment.org /npp/EmbassyCableNMD_copy.cfm (5875 words)

	Protecting Our People -NRA (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		It was in the context of that struggle that weapons of mass destruction came to threaten the globe, and our modern defense establishment was designed to face the reality that literally any conflict anywhere had the potential to become our final battle.
		MAD (aptly named) was the idea that, because both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. possessed sufficient nuclear firepower to largely destroy its opponent, neither country would attack, at least with weapons of mass destruction.
		The cornerstone of MAD was, and is, the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty.
	www.natreformassn.org /statesman/01/protect.html (2274 words)

	ROBERT McNamara
		(laugh) Mutual Assured Destruction is the foundation of deterrence.
		And that requires that there be a balance and the balance is the understanding that if either side initiates the use of nuclear weapons, the other side will respond with sufficient power to inflict unacceptable damage.
		So Mutual Assured Destruction is the foundation of stable deterrence in a nuclear world.
	www.gwu.edu /~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-12/mcnamara2.html (707 words)

	FPRI Wire: From MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) to MUD (Multilateral Unconstrained Disruption): Dealing with the New ...
		The destruction of what risk managers would regard as the targeted assets-the four airplanes, the passengers and crew, the three major buildings, the occupants of the buildings, and so on-was the source of the horror.
		But even the number of deaths (exceeding the strike on Pearl Harbor), the destruction of the World Trade Center and airplanes, and the damage to the Pentagon were not catastrophic for the nation or for the West.
		Aside from al Qaeda’s interest in retribution through death and destruction, the assets employed and destroyed were merely the means to pursue the broader goal of neutralizing the West.
	www.fpri.org /fpriwire/1101.200302.galehusick.madtomud.html (2535 words)

	GU - SFS - ISD: Iden Report
		Russia and the United States are pursuing a strategy of mutual assured security and are cooperating in the dismantlement of their fearsome nuclear arsenals.
		We were also left with a buyer's market for weapons of mass destruction, including a massive arsenal, infrastructure, and workforce; unsettled political conditions that made it harder to predict both weapons and materials; and a depressed economy that increased the pressure to sell those weapons and materials.
		This deterrent capability should be enough to warn off any nation from using weapons of mass destruction, but the reality is that the simple threat of retaliation may not be enough to deter some rogue nations or to deter terrorists from using these weapons.
	www.georgetown.edu /sfs/programs/isd/files/perry.htm (2625 words)

	Nuclear Strategy differences in Soviet and American thinking (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		First of all, its viability depends in turn on the viability of the mutual assured destruction doctrine, which presumes that the sole objective of both sides is the prevention of nuclear warfare.
		Deterrence through mutual assured destruction had become the orthodox faith, and its disciples usually argued only over how much of the federal budget ought to be spent on it and what kinds of weapons and force mix were necessary to achieve it.
		Indeed, the U.S. military capacity for an assured destruction capability against the Soviet Union is one of the very things which I believe the Soviets intend to eliminate in their pursuit of superiority.
	www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil /airchronicles/aureview/1979/mar-apr/jenson.html (7935 words)

	A Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) response to al-Qaeda attacks on London or New York? - Above Top Secret Conspiracy ...
		Apart from the fact that a MAD response to a nuke going off in London or New York would be a knee-jerk, genocidal response, what about the international dangers of the fall-out produced from such a response.
		With a 'smart' MAD counter-terrorist strategy, you don't nuke imagined enemies, you destroy the base (al-Qaeda) of the human, financial and electronic intelligence networks which they are using to destroy you (9/11).
		Zero Lift: You didn't answer my question on the value of a published MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) list to tell the terrorist support networks of what our response would be based on the severity of their attack.
	www.abovetopsecret.com /forum/thread44661/pg1 (2329 words)

	mutual assured destruction on Encyclopedia.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION [mutual assured destruction] see nuclear strategy.
		Madder than MAD: why Star Wars may be a higher form of Mutual Assured Destruction.
		Still MAD; 'Mutually Assured Destruction' hasn't gone away, and neither has its logic.
	www.encyclopedia.com /html/X/X-mutualas.asp (172 words)

	Rethinking the Unthinkable
		In the United States it soon became the practice to determine the desired strength of the strategic forces by their contribution to the assured destruction role; thus the scenario of spasm war, the least likely type of conflict because of its suicidal nature, tended to become the typical case.
		Furthermore, the current condition of strategic force parity, mutual assured destruction, the avoidance on both sides of explicit threats, and the mutual determination to preserve an atmosphere of détente have persuaded many that it is now safe to relax defense spending.
		The assured destruction philosophy is based on the fears associated with the awesome destruction that accompanies thermonuclear war.
	www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil /airchronicles/aureview/1977/may-jun/charles.html (6140 words)

	Commentary Magazine - Nuclear Strategy: The New Debate (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		...was the product of this search, though in the beginning it was not "mutual" but assured destruction tout court, since in those days it had not yet become fashionable to assume a mutuality of interests between this country and the Soviet Union-even for survival...
		...In fact it was a heroic leap, for M.A.D., unlike assured destruction, assumed the bilateral desirability of "stable deterrence," as if it did not matter that the United States was a status-quo power on the defensive, while the Soviet Union was and still is very much in pursuit of further zones of influence and control...
		...HE doctrinal shift from the simple deterrence of assured destruction to the imaginary reciprocity of mutual assured destruction was the final step in the transformation of theory into dogma...
	www.commentarymagazine.com /Summaries/V57I4P55-1.htm (5185 words)

	washingtonpost.com: ABM Treaty May Be History, But Deterrence Doctrine Lives
		Yet, many arms control experts say the doctrine of nuclear deterrence, or mutually assured destruction, that the treaty enshrined remains alive and well.
		It has even been a centerpiece of the Bush administration's efforts to win Russian acceptance of missile defense tests; officials in Washington have repeatedly assured their counterparts in Moscow that U.S. missile defenses will not be able to block a full-scale Russian nuclear strike.
		Even though both countries have promised to reduce their arsenals and Bush spoke last week about replacing mutually assured destruction with "mutual cooperation," the militaries on both sides remain under orders to maintain the threat of annihilation.
	www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A49643-2001Dec15?language=printer (958 words)

	bookofjoe: What do the Cold War doctrine of 'Mutual Assured Destruction' and the Screaming Meanie alarm clock have in ...
		Mutual Assured Destruction (whose acronym, MAD, is perhaps the most perfect one ever created) had its origins in the 1940s and 1950s and was shaped and refined by the very greatest strategic and military thinkers on the planet.
		Say what you will about the madness of the concept, it worked: nuclear war didn't happen and the Cold War ended.
		But here's where the MAD concept comes into play: if you set your regular alarm clock to go off two or three minutes before the Screaming Meanie, it's amazing how the alarm that you sometimes ignored or pretended not to hear in the past suddenly works perfectly.
	www.bookofjoe.com /2005/12/what_do_the_col.html (794 words)

	National Missile Defence (NMD)
		Indeed, it is possible that a defence against the limited attack capability of so-called "rogue" states or accidental launches by nuclear weapons states could eliminate the triggering event that might otherwise ignite the nuclear holocaust of mutual assured destruction.
		Technical and strategic objections aside, the strategic defence initiative made sense to people dissatisfied with the suicide pact of mutual assured destruction.
		The challenge is to move technology from the realm of strategic competition to that of strategic cooperation to the benefit to all.
	www.pugwash.org /reports/pim/pim42.htm (505 words)

	Balkinization (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		During the decades long nuclear standoff between the US and the USSR, when Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept the peace, I occasionally contemplated what I would do if I were the President and the other side had launched all of their weapons, assuring our obliteration.
		The problem here is that few among the combatants of left or the right seem to recognize, or care, that the very integrity of the legal system is threatened by the overwhelming politicization of the judicial appointments process (not to mention by the battles they incite in and through the law).
		Your "mutually assured destruction" seems to be nothing more than wider acceptance of the foregoing, "liberated" view.
	balkin.blogspot.com /2005/07/are-we-facing-mutually-assured.html (7330 words)

	BBC NEWS \| Americas \| US warns of nuclear response
		Washington has said it is prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary to respond to any attack with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against itself or its allies.
		Copies of the six-page strategy document were released to the media ahead of its official unveiling.
		Called the National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction, the document is to be delivered to Congress on Wednesday.
	news.bbc.co.uk /2/hi/americas/2564509.stm (411 words)

	Mutually Assured Destruction: (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Miller asks this question in her book For Your Own Good: Hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence in response to the stockpiling of nuclear weapons around the world.
		To the end of their lives, these people carried out the orders they were given without ever questioning the content (Miller 65).
		The protective mechanism used by the child thus becomes fateful for the adult and for our species, for repression leads - out of pure ignorance - to the destruction of our own children and our fellow human beings and to the acceptance of abuse as a normal way of lie.
	www.ric.edu /fas/fas15aug/mutually.html (2739 words)

	Foreign Affairs - The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy - Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press
		During the Cold War, many scholars and policy analysts believed that MAD made the world relatively stable and peaceful because it induced great caution in international politics, discouraged the use of nuclear threats to resolve disputes, and generally restrained the superpowers' behavior.
		Critics of MAD, however, argued that it prevented not great-power war but the rolling back of the power and influence of a dangerously expansionist and totalitarian Soviet Union.
		Neither side came close to gaining a first-strike capability, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the arms race as entirely irrational: both superpowers were well aware of the benefits of nuclear primacy, and neither was willing to risk falling behind.
	www.foreignaffairs.org /20060301faessay85204/keir-a-lieber-daryl-g-press/the-rise-of-u-s-nuclear-primacy.html (1349 words)

	CNN - Cold War
		With Cold War tensions heightening at the start of the 1960s, the superpowers are drawn into an escalating arms race.
		The world's safety depends on a nuclear paradox known as "mutual assured destruction."
		With warheads primed and suspicion deeply rooted, all it takes is a simple human error or technical glitch to sound the alarm of a nuclear attack.
	www.cnn.com /SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/12 (185 words)

	Foreign Affairs - Are Missile Defenses MAD? Combining Defenses with Arms Control - Michael Krepon (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Michael Krepon is President of the Henry L. Stimson Center and the author of Strategic Stalemate: Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in American Politics.
		Hawks have sought to refute what came to be known as the principle of mutual assured destruction, both on philosophical grounds and through technological advances in offensive weapons and ballistic missile defenses.
		Doves have sought to cement the principle of joint annihilation as a cornerstone of arms control.
	www.foreignaffairs.org /19950101faessay5004/michael-krepon/are-missile-defenses-mad-combining-defenses-with-arms-control.html?mode=print (516 words)

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