nanog mailing list archives
Re: Every incident is an opportunity
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () cs columbia edu>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:17:02 -0500
On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:05:45 -0500 Barry Shein <bzs () world std com> wrote:
In the late 60s I remember having an interesting conversation with someone who did this kind of strategizing for the Dept of Civil Defense. His scenarios were markedly diferent from the "urban folklore" you'd hear from people about what the Russkies were likely to nuke, other than everyone agreed they'd try to get the silos and a few other key military assets to try to prevent retaliation.
Targeting strategy changed over time, because of changes in technology, quantity of bombs available, accuracy, perceived threats, and internal politics. For a good history of US nuclear targeting strategy, see "The Wizards of Armageddon", Fred Kaplan, 1983. The short answer, though, is that it changed markedly over time. To give just one example, at one time the US targeted cities, with very big bombs, because the missiles of the day couldn't reliably hit anything smaller. Since that's what was possible, a strategic rationale evolved to make that seem sensible. --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
Current thread:
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Robert Bonomi (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Barry Shein (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Steven M. Bellovin (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Barry Shein (Feb 12)
- Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Olsen, Jason (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") micky coughes (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Alexander Harrowell (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Mike Lyon (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Crist Clark (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Jay Hennigan (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Steven M. Bellovin (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Barry Shein (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Steven M. Bellovin (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Paul Vixie (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Stephane Bortzmeyer (Feb 13)