nanog mailing list archives
Re: Every incident is an opportunity
From: Barry Shein <bzs () world std com>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:12:56 -0500
Of course, but the point was the goal of that targetting. The US public by and large believed, and seems to still believe (i.e., the TV show Jericho) that the goal of a USSR attack was purely vindictive, complete annhilation. Apparently Civil Defense leaned more towards invasion as a goal. No doubt as weapons systems evolve how you achieve one goal or the other evolves. Either goal leads to different targeting strategies, as possible. If your goal is invasion then value preservation is important (factories, bridges, civilian infrastructure, etc.) If anniliation is the goal than it's of no importance, just bomb the densest population centers. On February 12, 2007 at 16:17 smb () cs columbia edu (Steven M. Bellovin) wrote:
On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:05:45 -0500 Barry Shein <bzs () world std com> wrote:In the late 60s I remember having an interesting conversation with someone who did this kind of strategizing for the Dept of Civil Defense. His scenarios were markedly diferent from the "urban folklore" you'd hear from people about what the Russkies were likely to nuke, other than everyone agreed they'd try to get the silos and a few other key military assets to try to prevent retaliation.Targeting strategy changed over time, because of changes in technology, quantity of bombs available, accuracy, perceived threats, and internal politics. For a good history of US nuclear targeting strategy, see "The Wizards of Armageddon", Fred Kaplan, 1983. The short answer, though, is that it changed markedly over time. To give just one example, at one time the US targeted cities, with very big bombs, because the missiles of the day couldn't reliably hit anything smaller. Since that's what was possible, a strategic rationale evolved to make that seem sensible. --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
-- -Barry Shein The World | bzs () TheWorld com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Login: Nationwide Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*
Current thread:
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Robert Bonomi (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Barry Shein (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Steven M. Bellovin (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Barry Shein (Feb 12)
- Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Olsen, Jason (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") micky coughes (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Alexander Harrowell (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Mike Lyon (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Crist Clark (Feb 12)
- Re: Request for topic death on Cold War history (was "RE: Every incident is an opportunity") Jay Hennigan (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Steven M. Bellovin (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Barry Shein (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Steven M. Bellovin (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Paul Vixie (Feb 12)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Stephane Bortzmeyer (Feb 13)
- Re: Every incident is an opportunity Edward Lewis (Feb 13)