Marketplace listings for: Soviet First Strike Threat The U.S. Perspective

Seller notes: xii, 292, [2] pages. Selected Bibliography. Index. The author was a graduate of the United States Military Academy and earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After his military service, he became a principal with Technology Transfer Associates, Inc. specializing in national security studies and a consultant with SRI International. He has published articles on national security affairs in several professional journals and has participated in a number of national security studies for the U.S. Government. In particular, he has studied nuclear conflict for the Department of Defense. This book examines the development of U.S. concern over a Soviet disarming first strike threat in the post-World War II period. It seeks to explore why this threat has so dominated U.S. national security policy and to suggest the consequences of such dominance. The overall assessment of threats rests on more than a simple assessment of an opponent's capabilities. The assessment of intentions and vulnerabilities--either stated or unstated--is critical. In the nuclear age, vulnerability has assumed an importance overshadowing intentions and at least equal to capability. Vulnerability determines the enemy capability that countries deem important in their threat assessments.