M.A.D Is Madness

Riley Gulrajani

Professor Shirk

International Relations

M.A.D is Madness

I will discuss the ridiculousness, yet stability of mutually assured destruction and argue that it in today’s world, it acts as the best deterrent.  The quote, "Offense is defense, defense is offense. Killing people is good, killing weapons is bad", sums up the theory of mutually assured destruction rather well.  While it may seem illogical, this thinking has been a basis for U.S. nuclear strategy for decades, and has served rather well. At the heart of the nuclear restraint is the concept of mutual assured destruction, meaning each side maintains nuclear forces sufficient to inflict devastating damage on its opponent even if the other side strikes first. The greatest deterrent to nuclear war is a strategic force that can withstand an opponent's first strike and still retaliate in kind. In this situation, neither side has an incentive to strike first, which would only arise if one side could destroy the other's weapons in a primary strike. Then a tremendous advantage would go to the side striking first. Similarly, if one side had some means of protecting its population from nuclear attack, it might also be tempted to begin nuclear warfare, because it would be reasonably safe from retaliation.

This thinking then leads to the conclusions that threatening to kill people is good because it deters nuclear attack. While threatening to destroy weapons is bad because it challenges the ability of the other side to retaliate.  An invulnerable nuclear force is the best deterrent, so offense is the best defense, and an effective anti-ballistic missile defense or an ABM upsets the balance, which means defense is offense. The acronym for mutual assured destruction, M.A.D, is very deserving.  It is truly madness that in 1972, Nixon and Brezhnev, signed an ABM Agreement which prohibited either side from defending itself against a missile attack by the other. This meant that millions of Americans were offered as the Soviet Union’s hostages in the game of nuclear strategy and in return President Nixon got the right to hold a hundred million Soviet citizens as his hostages.  This is the core of mutually assured destruction.