You Have No Right to Make Me Think about This--The De-legitimation of Current Nuclear Policies Among Key American Elites,
Abstract
Until fairly recently, most segments of the American public, particularly our various elites, supported American nuclear policy, namely the maintenance of large and expanding nuclear stockpiles, the official foreswearing of the use of these weapons in a strategic first-strike, and the policy of threatening retaliation for Soviet nuclear attacks in war, by nuclear attacks on enemy cities and military centers. There is increasing evidence that this support is rapidly eroding; especially among key American elites. This is shown through increasingly vocal dissatisfaction with the continued growth and modernization of the nuclear stockpile; and second, in the dawning awareness of a discrepancy between our official policy of no first-strike and contingency plans to employ first-strike tactical nuclear weapons in the event of a Warsaw Pact attack upon Western Europe. Concerns have surfaced here due both to distaste at the growing size of our nuclear arsenal and the perception that we have not been altogether honest in our official stance of a no first-strike with nuclear weapons. Increasing numbers of Americans are coming to see our nuclear policy as inconsistent, senseless, and, most significantly, immoral, and therefore support a nuclear freeze.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 16, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADP001601
Entities
People
- Richard Gwyn Davies