"It's not mad! Mutual Assured Destruction is the foundation of deterrence."
- Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara
- Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara
Mutually Assured Destruction
•MAD
•The testing of larger and larger weapons made this a major issue in the 1960s
•Partial Test Ban Treaty resulted after Cuban Missile Crisis and fear of MAD
•Became major focus for Richard Nixon as part of his détente policy
Summary: Mutually assured destruction (MAD), is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender
•The testing of larger and larger weapons made this a major issue in the 1960s
•Partial Test Ban Treaty resulted after Cuban Missile Crisis and fear of MAD
•Became major focus for Richard Nixon as part of his détente policy
Summary: Mutually assured destruction (MAD), is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender