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From: dcn@ihuxl.UUCP (Dave Newkirk)
Newsgroups: net.tv.da
Subject: Deterrence, MAD and Overkill
Message-ID: <771@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Nov-83 09:31:20 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.771
Posted: Tue Nov 29 09:31:20 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Nov-83 03:49:49 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 19


	Deterrence only works as long as our weapons are as good as theirs.
	If we suddenly stop working on ours without a similar halt on Soviet
	research, our defence will slowly erode away.  This is also the reason
	we maintain a larger number of weapons than expected: we must be able
	to reply to a first strike which knocks out many of our missiles, or
	the other side might consider doing just that!

	If we can not come to an agreement with the USSR to halt development of
	new nuclear weapons and reduce the existing stockpile (and it doesn't
	look too likely), we can try a different defence.  A simple satellite
	network carrying cheap interceptor rockets could greatly reduce the
	number of missiles that get through.  More advanced systems could
	decrease that number even further.  This can be destabilizing, but
	it may be the only way out of the MAD plan.

				Dave Newkirk, ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn

	P.S. Whatever happened to "Give me liberty or give me death!" (:-)