U.S. Strategic Nuclear Policy, An Oral History, Part 2

47:06 The IMF treaty expired 2/2026. New START expired and was not extended by Russia, therefore the US waits.

Outstanding documentary

asmr

Fantastic stuff.

Is it me or do the intellects of this era seem much more impressive than the current raft of nonentities?😢

With the benefit of being able to look backwards from the highlands of the future we now inhabit, it sometimes looks like our National immune system, deprived of a real disease infection, did what all under utilised immune systems do, it turned on itself.
We should remember that the US did drop bombs on a non nuclear country to bring an end to an appalling conventional war. That suggests that we could and would do again should the circumstances require.
All of North Korea’s crime family lives in one conurbation that would only require a small clean sky burst to render entirely impotent. A second the following day if capitulation isn’t sufficiently convincing. Iran might require a few more but hardly a taxing battle. I suggest that deterrence is still keeping the peace. They might gain the ability but to use it would be akin to using it upon themselves.
The use of nuclear weapons against non nuclear powers is virtually guaranteed and requires only the correct circumstances to initiate. To suggest otherwise is to invite catastrophe.

Teller looked like he had been dead inside for years already.

My god. These monkeys are still spouting propaganda 40years later!! These idiots actually believe there is a future after a full nuclear war. Thats the problem, they refuse to accept just how uncontrollable these weapons are. Humans cannot manage the means of our destruction. Accepting that is the 1st step towards reversing this madness.

Bloody madness!! The whole thing is insane irrational and nonsense. These people play with forces that are uncontrollable. The only rational way is at the time of receiving a 1st strike surrender and stand down immediately. The enemy has won by merely deciding to attack. Losing everything in an exchange isn’t rational. My life is as important as the donkeys on top and their pointless agendas.

Please God don't let Agent Orange near the buttons... I know there are no buttons but I'm just using it as a metaphor. The thought of djt near nuclear weapons it's just unfathomable. He didn't even know that the British had nuclear weapons when he visited Theresa May the first time in 2017.

Williams Christopher Johnson Brenda Young Larry

There is one glaring error in this video series and that is how the US strategic defense policy makers, both civilian and military, fail to address and would deal with USSR and presumably Russian ICBMs carrying not nuclear warheads, but engineered bioweapons for a second strike capacity to destroy both survivors and agriculture through the dissemination of aerosolized anthrax (B. anthracis) into the general environment. This anthrax is highly resistant to treatment, extremely virulent for decades in the environment, It can present symptoms in healthy adults within 1-2 days and may delay up to 60 to 8 weeks and is difficult to diagnose from the common cold or influenza, unless reason/s to suspect it are known to medical personnel.

Nixon banned such bioweapons in the late 1960s, but the Soviets industrialized production until the early 1990s. President Yeltsin directed that this program be stopped and for a time it was. Putin may have brought it back to life and may be producing them for the RS-28 Sarmat/Satan II super-heavy ICBM missile

Lewis Mark Hall John Clark Joseph

Teller'a flights of fancey have cost this country billions and billions of dollars over the years. One of the most overrated scientists in history he was, imo.

🎉 you have some nerve talking about Mr.Carter,,, i apologize president MF no heat in the white house 😮🥶 you know I wonder if he was cold that night also wonder how cold Mrs Carter was she had to have been froze

1:52:10 welp…guess that didn’t turn out very well.

I love the production value and material…and the breadth of interviewees is fantastic. But the sequence about the late 80’s policy planners and war planners being out of synch on targeting is very confusing. I couldn’t figure out what they disagreed on. Was it too many targets? Wrong targets? Too few targets?

If you dont understand and accept why Russia is developing new delivery systems after you've watched this video, you are not ignorant, you are an idiot.

Verywell done,But i wonder if anyone is listening with all the worlds armed forces preparing for war thanks Russia,korea and the Islamic sebre rattlers 😢😢😢

This video should be titled: “SELF-LICKING ICE CREAM CONES FOR DUMMIES”. Seriously, that’s all we are looking at is the industrial complex self licking ice cream. For example. Osama bin laden wouldve never noticed us had we not overthrew everybody and the grandmother. The fact is Americans tend to be mentally weak. Being objective. Go to Iraq tell them about the worst day in history where we lost 2.990 people and they will tell you how they lost 1,000,000+ 90% civilian causality rate all because the leader was devaluing the American dollar 12yrs prior. Imagine swallowing that? The bitterness will never leave them I would bet.

When was this originally published? (no mention of how OSCE suckered Ukraine into surrendering their nuclear deterrence capability)

Nuclear technology is nothing...the real threat is who we place in control of these weapons

👍👍👍

Spys like us and wargames come to mind while watchin this

Spartan and sprint! Colorful names. Charming. Humans are such adorable and creative beings on their way to incinerating and destroying each other. It’s lovely!

Since WW II the American Empire has sought a dominance over the planet...most of the world knows this very clearly..that Empire is now in decline period full stop.

How can anyone think Trump could take care of our country? Reagan. Bush. Others. Trump is dangerous. Retaliation.

gaining wisdom from those who have been threw these things. you will be hard pressed to find someone who has more understanding of this situation then Robert does. i am grateful for those who served and brought to us these issues for learning

Love the tranquil music bed, under the narration of such a devastating weapon!

This is very well done. I couldn't stop watching.

Will there be a Part 3; based on most recent events? It would seem today that many of the things that we have come to believe about nuclear weapons and how they may or may not be used is up for debate again. In the face of that same young man who now says that he "will" use them if he encounters any external resistance to his Scorched Earth exercise in the Ukraine. Thoughts anyone?

Nike X/Safeguard never ceases to amaze me for the time. What an undertaking to even attempt.

Hilarious to see the old liberal idiots so trusting and loving of the Soviet Union. You can trust those guys we can work with them! What did one here at the 44:30 mark call Reagan repeating the Soviets' own aims, own words? Oh yes, "radical rhetoric." After Reagan dreamed up SDI, Colin Powell said the Joint Chiefs were invited to the White House and Reagan told them to consider forgetting all this M. A.D. nonsense and what if instead, we win and they lose? Colin Powell said they were all floored, apparently it had never occurred to these bullet-headed military idiots that might be possible.

fascinating insight at the time, before Putin became what he has become. The problem now becomes that do we trust the analysts and Politian's with new leaders. The trusted Putin but he turning out another dictator with his rhetoric. Sadly I don't see the complete removal of the weapons in the near future, but in increase in more than tactical devices, whilst you have the likes of Vladimir exist. Oh how I would love a world of no thermonuclear weapons, we have to continue with M.A.D. It is really awful to say, but how do you deal with unhinged leaders?

As a Russian living in Canada, I love my country and my home country. I really wish we could all work together instead of against each other.. so much money spent on both sides that could have been put together and used to fund a collaborative effort to better the lives of everyone on the planet. Could you imagine if we didn’t have wars and instead focused on mutual success and prosperity instead of destruction and hatred.. I personally don’t think neither side is superior nor that anyone is worse or better or anymore or less deserving of having more influence or whatever. I can only dream of mutual respect and trust, collaboration and friendship.. there’s a lot more going for the idea of being united then being enemies and competing. Collaboration and teamwork have the potential to solve much greater objectives.

McNamara was was a protected murderer .
Sorry he lived so long ....

Crazy it was but isn't that the primary nature of man?

Russia has always been and still is a risk to a peaceful human community on this planet.

7:39 Sentinel: anti-ballistic missile system; area coverage of the US. Soviet countermeasures: warheads in balloons

I think the scariest thing about the atomic blast is that silent white hot flash. Right before the boom. The energy and power release they couldn’t even consider it. In their own admission

Nuclear weapons have no military utility apart from against an enemy who also holds them and intends to use them against you. Even with Russia's defensive invasion of Ukraine, there is little proof that these weapons are relevant. No nation should encourage the proliferation of such weapons for any reason.

Unfortunately, some people in Biden's Whitehouse think they or Ukraine can defeat Russia. The essence of being a nuclear power is to ensure no one can defeat you without defeating themselves in the process. It's just crazy what going on in Ukraine and how the media is spinning it with the approval of our government.

As the saying goes, "Old men declare wars, and young men die fighting it". Nobody seems to speak of no more wars in our day unfortunately.. Peace from Oz.

Making war a "for profit" big business was the leading downfall of the United States.

all this after dropping 2 bombs

Very good and informative.

None of our leaders wanted a nuclear war. If they start using these weapons, there will be nothing left. All these 'negotiations ", were absurd

How did we go from someone who spoke with such tact, dignity and professionalism to a bumbling idiot like Donald Trump?