Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

delivery exercised a dominant influence on the formation
of the U.S. global basing network in Asia <strong>and</strong>
throughout the world. 10 Due to the range <strong>and</strong> other
technical limitations of the U.S. military systems of the
era, U.S. bases were constructed around the world as
necessary to support the execution of the U.S. nuclear
war plan against the Soviet Union <strong>and</strong> China. U.S.
bombers, for instance, required forward bases from
which to stage or refuel, or to recover to in the wake of
a strike; similar range constraints dictated the need for
deployment of U.S. missiles <strong>and</strong> basing of U.S. vessels
nearer to the Soviet Union <strong>and</strong> China than U.S. territory
could provide. 11
However, in the 1960s, this policy of overweening
reliance on nuclear weapons began to change.
The “massive retaliation” doctrine’s threat to resort to
nuclear weapons early <strong>and</strong> inflexibly in response to
a whole range of provocations always seemed somewhat
suspect at the lower level of escalation. But the
looming advent of an assured Soviet strategic-range
nuclear capability <strong>and</strong> increasing attention to the difficulties
of controlling escalation in a nuclear war began
to make such heavy reliance on nuclear weapons seem
unconscionably dangerous <strong>and</strong> decreasingly credible
during the later 1950s <strong>and</strong> 1960s, <strong>and</strong> a resort to massive
retaliation seem potentially suicidal. As a result,
calls grew louder to focus more on the strengthening
of non-nuclear forces, especially in light of the relative
neglect such forces had suffered during the 1950s. 12
With the entry of the John Kennedy administration
to office in 1961, this shift away from nuclear weapons
became U.S. policy. U.S. strategy in all theaters therefore
began a gradual transition from declared reliance
on nuclear weapons towards emphasis on non-nuclear
forces, though nuclear forces remained central in U.S.
79