An Incredible Credible Deterrent

Much is made of the need for our nuclear deterrent to be credible. Otherwise, it would be useless. An exchange on September 16, 1980, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has much to say about that quest:

Senator Glenn: I get lost in what is credible and not credible. This whole thing gets so incredible when you consider wiping out whole nations, it is difficult to establish credibility.

Secretary of Defense Harold Brown: That is why we sound a little crazy when we talk about it.

Martin Hellman

This post is closely related to a series on “How Logical is Nuclear Deterrence?” Click to access Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

About Martin Hellman

I am a professor at Stanford University, best known for my invention of public key cryptography -- the technology that protects the secure part of the Internet, such as electronic banking. But, since 1982, my primary interest has been how fallible human beings can survive possessing nuclear weapons, where even one mistake could be catastrophic. My latest project is a book, co-written with my wife Dorothie, with the audacious subtitle "Creating True Love at Home & Peace on the Planet." It's on Amazon and a free PDF can be downloaded from its website: https://anewmap.com.

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