From: "Nik Simpson"

james_anatidae wrote:
I was wondering at about what point that the United States going to
war with the Soviet Union become an almost certain act of mutual
destruction. I'm assuming it sometime in 1960's or 70's, since what
I've seen of the Soviet nuclear capability before that point doesn't
seem to be all that threatening. It looks like they would have been
really bad for us Americans, but not unsurvivable.

For both sides, it became unthinkable when a first strike had little chance
of knocking out the opponents nuclear strikeforce. As long as there was a
realistic possiblity that a surprise attack could wipe out US or USSR
strategic nuclear weapons, then I'm some on both sides gave it serious
consideration.

So I'd say MAD became a fact when both sides had deployed sufficient nuclear
armed submarines able to roam the seas largely unseen and hence unstoppable
in a first strike.


--
Nik Simpson

In my opinion it was a very bad idea before MAD. Had Patton got his way and we
invaded the Soviet Union, even with the 20 nukes he theorized we would need, it
would have been impossible to win. The Soviets didn't disarm as the U.S. did
since Joseph "they are out to get me" Stalin was convinced the West was going
to invade. They were willing to accept huge casualties just as they had with
the Nazis.

The Soviets might have been able to take all of Europe if they tried hard
enough, but they had no way to directly attack the U.S. at the time. If they
wanted to invade the U.S. they would have had to do it through Alaska which
would be suicidal.

Dan. U.S. Air Force, retired