Nuclear Issues in the 1970s and 1980s

Nuclear Issues in the 1970s and 1980s
• Arms control + arms
buildup
• ‘Star Wars’
• Global anti-nuclear
movement
• End of the Cold
War…and then?

Includes both high yield ‘strategic’ weapons and low-yield ‘tactical’ weapons

Strategic Nuclear Forces, 1975 vs. 1985
US, 1975 USSR, 1975 US, 1985 USSR, 1985
ICBM
1,054
1,618 1,018 1,398
SLBM
656 in 41 subs
784 in 75 subs 616 in 37 subs 979 in 77 subs
Bombers
436
135 236 (total
strategic
warheads =
14,000)
170 (total
strategic
warheads =
10,500)

Attempts to Limit Weapons Stockpiles
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
– Origins in 1967; centerpiece of US arms control
efforts in 1970s.
– Problems and issues?

MIRV and the Tragedy of Timing
+
Safeguard ABM complex in North Dakota

• SALT I agreements signed
by Nixon and Brezhnev in
May 1972

The Arms Buildup
• Both US and Soviets build up their nuclear and
conventional arsenals in 1970s, early 1980s
– MX missile - SS-18 and SS-20
– Cruise missiles - Backfire bombers
– B-1 Bomber - Conventional forces
– Trident submarines
– Neutron bomb

B-1 bomber
Trident sub
MX Missile
Cruise missile

SS-20
‘Backfire’ Bomber

“Limited Nuclear War”
• What is the purpose of all these weapons?
– Deterrence?
– To fight and win a war?

The Global Peace Movement
Germany
New York, 1982

Nuclear Fears and Popular Culture
1980 painting by Alex Gray – Nuclear Crucifixion

Pink Floyd – “Two Suns in the Sunset”
(1983)
…the sun is in the east
even though the day is done
two suns in the sunset
could be the human race is run…
foe and friend
we were all equal in the end

• The Day After – seen by
100 million Americans
• Testament; Threads
• All address the “what
if” of a world destroyed.

Nuclear Power Fears
• Another component of
nuclear fear
• Three Mile Island;
March 1979
• Chernobyl; April 1986
– “What has feathers and
glows in the dark?”
–“Chicken Kiev”

Nuclear Winter Scenarios
• Yet more nuclear fear…
• What would happen to climate after nuclear
war?

Increasing Instability:
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
• Threat of Soviet SS-20s
• US deploys Pershing II missiles
– About 6 minutes from launch to impact.
• USSR threatens to adopt “launch on warning”
(vs. “launch under attack”).
• West Germany votes to accept US missiles
November 1983.

Star Wars - 1983
• US opts to pursue technological solution to
arms race

Pres. Ronald Reagan announcing
Strategic Defense Initiative (‘Star Wars’) in 1983

Problems with SDI?
• IT MUST WORK
PERFECTLY.
• Hard to do and easy to
deceive.
• How to test?

The Cold War Winds Down
Fall of Berlin Wall, 1989

And today…?

How to do it?
• Directed energy
weapons
• Adaptive optics
• Kinetic energy weapons

1980s videogame “Missile Command”