Mutually Assured Destruction Or, When Both Sides Lose

If there was a button in front of you that when pushed would make your greatest enemy disappear, would you push it? Now if that same button also made you disappear along with your enemy, would you still push it? This was a dilemma faced by the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. Each waiting and watching to see which one would be the first to press that button.

Brief History of Atomic Weapons

In Berlin in 1938 physicists Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered how nuclear fission works, laying the groundwork for nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Nuclear fission occurs when an atom of radioactive material, most commonly uranium, is split into lighter atoms which in turn releases a huge amount of energy. This energy can be used in numerous ways and from this discovery on Germany worked to create nuclear weapons.

On December 28, 1942 America formed the Manhattan Project in direct response to fears that Germany had been developing a nuclear weapon since the 1930s. This project brought together scientists and military officials to work on nuclear research and develop Americas own atomic weapon. Most of the work occurred at the Los Alamos testing range in New Mexico, and on July 16, 1945 the Trinity Test was performed in Alamogordo, New Mexico where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Fortunately the fighting in Europe was over but there was still much fighting occuring in the Pacific. In late July, not long after the first atomic detonation, President Harry Truman sent the Potsdam Declaration to Japan. Which called for Japan’s surrender and promised that if they would not then they would face “prompt and utter destruction”. Japan refused the declaration and on August 6, 1945 the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. “Little Boy”, as the bomb was nicknamed, released 13 kilotons of force which leveled 5 square miles of the city and killed 80,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more would die later from radiation exposure. Japan still refused to surrender which prompted the United States to drop “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki. It killed roughly 40,000 people upon impact and took out a good chunk of Japan's industrial capacity. Citing “a new and most cruel bomb” Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced surrender on August 15, ending the Second World War.

Fat Man on a trailer at the Los Alamos range. Courtesy of the War Department.

After World War Two the United States was the only country with nuclear capabilities, but many in the government and military, including President Truman, refused to see them as a legitimate military strategy. Instead they believed that it was a weapon of terror only to be used in the most dire of circumstances.

Picture of Hiroshima 24 hours after the bomb was dropped. Courtesy of ICRC Archives.

As the war drew to a close tensions between the United States and Soviet Union began to heat up, slowly starting the Cold War. In the earliest years of the Cold War, America enjoyed good security against Russia since they had nuclear weapons and the Soviets did not. However, that all changed on August 29, 1949 when the USSR successfully tested their first nuclear device. RDS-1 or “First Lightning” ushered in Russia’s atomic age and set them on equal ground with the United States.

Detonation of Russia’s First Lightning. Courtesy of Atomic Archive.

MAD and the Cold War

After Russia developed nuclear weapons both sides began a nuclear arms race to build up their arsenals and stockpile as many nukes as possible. America really began producing nuclear weapons when Dwight D. Eisenhower became president in 1953. He viewed atomic weapons differently by seeing them as a viable military option, and during his presidency from 1953 to 1961 the US arsenal expanded from just 1,000 nuclear weapons to 18,000. In 1959 President Eisenhower and the National Security Council agreed that the use of nuclear weapons was a legitimate tactic and decided that preemption, the act of using nuclear weapons unprovoked, was an acceptable military strategy. Throughout this time the US and Russia continued to develop more powerful weapons with the largest being the Tsar Bomba detonated by Russia on October 30, 1961. This was a 50 megaton bomb and was roughly 1,570 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan.

Mushroom cloud from the Tsar Bomba taken 100 miles away from the detonation. Courtesy of Atomic Forum.

Despite the continued development of nuclear arms the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) would not become relevant until 1962. This was when President John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, gave a speech to the American Bar Foundation outlining the idea of a flexible nuclear response. Basically the concept was that the United States would stockpile a massive nuclear arsenal and if the Soviet Union attacked then hopefully enough American missiles would survive the initial blast for America to immediately respond with its own nukes. The United States would send so many nuclear missiles that it “assured destruction”. In theory this would deter either side from initiating a nuclear strike since they would be inevitably destroyed by the other. This new doctrine set forth a new fear for the public as no one had control over the weapons being launched other than the nations governments. The thought of being annihilated from a country thousands of miles away at any moment was a terrifying prospect for citizens of both powers. Fears also arose from the idea of new technology and what might happen if there was an accident at a nuclear facility that caused one of the weapons to inadvertently launch.

As with everything, there were both supporters and detractors of MAD. Some believed it was the only way to ensure peace, while others thought it was just crazy to continually threaten nuclear war. Eight months later the MAD strategy would be put to the test during the most tense situation of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 14 Soviet missiles were discovered on the small island nation of Cuba, which sits just a little over 100 miles from the mainland United States. During the 13 day standoff America and the USSR threatened and negotiated with each other as they sought a resolution to the situation. In the end both sides compromised with Russia removing its missiles from Cuba and the United States agreeing to not invade the island nation, as well as removing its nuclear missiles from Turkey. In this moment MAD appeared to be a success.

Political cartoon made about MAD. Courtesy of schoolhistory.org.

Ending MAD

After the Cuban Missile Crisis there was a relative peace that lasted through the 1970s. However, by the 1980s the threat of nuclear war became very real once again as the Soviet Union now had many more nukes than they did previously. During this time it was commonly believed that there were enough atomic weapons in the arsenals of the world to kill the planets entire population many times over, and many were hoping that MAD would continue to keep the peace. Despite this there were several times in 1983 alone when the world was almost plunged into nuclear war. One particularly tense situation was when the USSR’s early warning system mistakenly tracked what it believed to be a US missile coming into Soviet airspace, if it had not been for Soviet commander Stanislav Petrov believing it was a false alarm then the world might have ended that night. The false alarm was later discovered to be caused by a satellite error.

President Ronald Reagan and President Mikhail Gorbachev. Courtesy of the Department of Defense and Time respectively.

The MAD doctrine was always dependent on the premise that if nukes were launched they would hit their target and not be intercepted beforehand. President Ronald Reagan upset this balance when he decided that the United States should build a missile defense system to intercept any ballistic missiles aimed at the country. In 1983 the US implemented the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) system, nicknamed “Star Wars” and its purpose was to intercept and destroy missiles before they could reach their target. There were many that disagreed with the implementation of SDI as it would destabilize the peace brought on by MAD. However the United States was able to invest in this technology while the USSR could not, and this was later cited as one of the reasons for why Gorbachev ended the Cold War. Through 1986 and 1987 both the United States and Soviet Union participated in talks of nuclear disarmament. With the Cold War over and countries destroying their nuclear weapons the MAD strategy faded away and is no longer an official part of military or political doctrine.

SDI logo. Courtesy of Missile Defense Agency.

Though there are still fears of nuclear weapons as rogue nations like North Korea and Iran continue to develop nuclear programs. There are also fears of India and Pakistan using nukes against each other as tensions between the two continue to be unstable at the time of writing this article. Despite these fears the world is in nowhere near as much danger of nuclear weapons as we once were.

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Personal Thoughts

I wanted to do an article on something involving the Cold War and I wanted to do something involving nuclear weapons, and I just happened to think about the MAD doctrine. I knew basically what it was but I had never done any extensive research on it and it’s kind of scary knowing how close the world was to ending. It is a relief now knowing that there aren’t as many nukes as there once was, but I would guess that both sides have lied about how many they created and how many have been destroyed. Of course that’s just my opinion. Still I think humanity is much safer than it was during the time of the Cold War. I can understand the appeal of nuclear weapons to military commanders and planners as they can be used to completely annihilate an enemy force and have the radiation act as an area denial access. But they’re just so dangerous, no matter how small the nuke is, it just isn’t something that should really be used lightly.