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The Nixon administration and the making of U.S. nuclear strategy

Terry Terriff

In 1974 Richard Nixon's defense secretary, James Schlesinger, announced that the United States would change its nuclear targeting policy from "assured destruction" to "limited nuclear options." In the first account of the Schlesinger Doctrine to be based on newly declassified documents and extensive interviews with key actors, Terry Terriff challenges the Nixon administration's official explanation of why and how this policy innovation occurred. According to Terriff, Schlesinger himself argued that "assured destruction," which called for a massive retaliatory nuclear attack to destroy the Soviet Union, could lead to a devastating counterstrike against U.S. cities. The new strategy added a range of limited nuclear options in order to reduce the potential for counterattacks against non-military targets. Schlesinger also stressed that the policy change was necessary because, with the...

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