Civil defense in limited war—a debate
DOI: 10.1063/1.3023423
Civil defense, once a hotly debated issue of the 1960’s, has again surfaced as a topic of controversy. It reappears amid the discussions of possible new strategies being proposed by the Defense Department. In January 1974, the then Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger announced the intention of the US to develop long‐range ballistic missiles of unprecedented accuracy. Because such weapons would have a relatively small error radius their yield would not have to be as large to be effective against military targets such as land‐based offensive missiles. Hence the Defense Department has raised the possibility of a limited nuclear war with counterforce strikes (that is, against the opponent’s offensive force) coupled with a program of civil defense to ensure a minimal level of civilian casualties.
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More about the authors
Arthur A. Broyles, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Eugene P. Wigner, Princeton University.
Sidney D. Drell, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
