Sleepwalking With the Bomb (37 page)

Read Sleepwalking With the Bomb Online

Authors: John C. Wohlstetter

Tags: #Europe, #International Relations, #Russia & the Former Soviet Union, #Nuclear Warfare, #Arms Control, #Political Science, #Military, #History

BOOK: Sleepwalking With the Bomb
9.32Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

The result is a set of complex trade-offs, well illustrated by Paul Nitze in his memoirs. The early U.S. systems relied on nuclear warheads to destroy warheads with near misses. The altitude at which decoys begin to slow down sufficiently to be separated from actual warheads is about 250,000 feet, just under 50 miles up. Under 100,000 feet—19 miles up—marks a line below which detonating nuclear devices is out of the question when defending cities. This offers some 30 miles in which to engage decoys; below 19 miles, nonnuclear or kinetic-impact missile defense warheads must be used. Silo defense is less demanding, as incoming warheads can be engaged well below 100,000 feet, where lighter decoys are out of the way, and thus genuine warheads will be easier to identify.

Ultimately perhaps more promising, but strongly opposed by the Russians, are boost-phase intercept systems that target missiles shortly after launch. The missile is traveling far more slowly than in space; decoys cannot be released and thus intercept could well work, even on a large scale. But such systems, which employ lasers, have had to compete for funding with other defensive ideas. Because such intercepts would likely take place over the attacker’s territory, potential attackers, including Russia, vigorously oppose their deployment.

In the 1970s the Russians conducted extensive laser beam defense experimentation at their Sary Shagan site in central Asia. Their technology was simply not up to the exacting task then, nor does it appear to be even today. American efforts have shown promise, but to date no system has proved itself against ICBMs. President Reagan was much taken by H-bomb father Edward Teller’s X-ray laser concept: when an atomic device detonated, a laser based in space would emit intense X-rays that could destroy large numbers of attacking warheads in flight. Teller’s concept was highly original, but eventually was abandoned, partly due to arms-control considerations about space weaponry and partly due to technical reservations. All large laser systems raise serious power problems. As noted in
chapter 13
the Airborne Laser program was cancelled for this reason. (It used lasers mounted on a 747 aircraft to target missiles.).

The Russians even objected to a midcourse intercept system promised to the Czech Republic and Poland in 2006 by President Bush, claiming that it would also be capable of tracking missiles in boost phase and possibly intercepting them. This gave President Obama a rationale in 2009 to justify unilaterally abrogating the 2006 deal. However, he negotiated not with our Eastern European partners but with Moscow, notifying the affected allied leaders a mere 25 minutes before announcing the swap of a land-based missile defense system for a sea-based one. The Obama administration asserted that the new system is better than the one promised our allies in 2006, but if this were true, why didn’t the United States approach these allies and tell them what a great deal it is? Thus did Cold War arms-control doctrine govern President Obama’s signature arms treaty, and trump concerns of two of our closest allies.

David Hoffman’s
The Dead Hand
offers a prime example of how hard violations issues are to definitively resolve. The Russians built a massive radar tracking facility at Krasnoyarsk, 1,869 miles inside the Soviet Union, with radar oriented inward. The ABM Treaty limited each side to a single radar protecting the capital, plus perimeter radars at the coastline. This was intended to prevent radars being used for “battle management”: directing large salvos of missiles to thwart a large-scale attack. At the perimeter, radars could take out individual missiles or small salvos but not represent a comprehensive shield. The U.S. maintained that the Krasnoyarsk facility was illegal because it was centrally located and also designed for battle management. On location the U.S. was clearly right. As to the system’s purpose, Hoffman contends it was to plug a hole in Russian defenses, not manage a large-scale defense, and thus a minor violation. In 1989 the Soviets openly admitted that the Krasnoyarsk facility indeed was a violation of the ABM Treaty.

That it took a confession by the Russians to establish a violation showed the infirmity of Cold War arms treaty enforcement. Russia could violate the ABM Treaty with impunity, without fear of being condemned for it. Absent a supervening legal authority capable of rendering judgment, let alone enforcing same, protesting Soviet violations amounted to shouting into the wind.

Thus has missile defense, for 40 years, been held hostage to arms control limits—even
after
the U.S. exited the ABM Treaty a decade ago.

__________________

57.
The Russians had first deployed 64 “Galosh” ABMs around Moscow in 1972.

B
IBLIOGRAPHY

Technology

Arnold, Lorna.
Britain and the H-Bomb
(2001).

Bernstein, Jeremy.
Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know
(2008).

Bernstein, Jeremy.
Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element
(2007).

Bodanis, David.
E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation
(2000).

Bryan, Jeff C.
Introduction to Nuclear Science
(2009).

Bush, Vannevar.
Modern Arms and Free Men
(1949).

Cohen, Sam.
Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb
(2000).

Garwin, Richard L., and Charpak, Georges.
Megawatts + Megatons: The Future of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons
(2001).

Harford, James.
Korolev
(1997).

Hoddeson, Lillian, et al.
Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945
(1993).

Macrae, Norman.
John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence and Much More
(1992).

McPhee, John.
The Curve of Binding Energy
(1974).

Miller, Richard L.
Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing
(1991).

Muller, Richard.
Physics for Future Presidents: The Science behind the Headlines
(2008).

Sakharov, Andrei.
Memoirs
(1990).

Serber, Robert.
The Los Alamos Primer
(1992).

Stine, G. Harry.
ICBM: The Making of the Weapon that Changed the World
(1991).

Tsipis, Kosta.
Arsenal: Understanding Weapons in the Nuclear Age
(1983).

Van Doren, William G.
Ivy-Mike: The First Hydrogen Bomb
(2008)

Willrich, Mason, and Taylor, Theodore B.
Nuclear Theft: Risks and Safeguards
(1974).

Wohlstetter, Albert, et al.
Nuclear Policies: Fuel without the Bomb
(1978).

Wohlstetter, Albert, et al.
Swords from Plowshares: The Military Potential of Civilian Nuclear Energy
(1979).

Strategy

Aligica, Paul Dragos, and Weinstein, Kenneth R., eds.
The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking
(2009).

Brodie, Bernard, ed.
The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and World Order
(1946).

Bruce-Biggs, B.
Shield of Faith: Strategic Defense from Zeppelins to Star Wars
(1988).

Bruce-Briggs, B.
Supergenius: The Mega-Worlds of Herman Kahn
(2000).

Freedman, Lawrence.
The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy
(3rd ed., 2003).

Friedman, George.
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century
(2009).

Kahn, Herman.
On Escalation: Metaphors and Scenarios
(1965).

Kahn, Herman.
On Thermonuclear War
(1960).

Kahn, Herman.
Thinking about the Unthinkable in the 1980s
(1984).

Krepinevich, Andrew F.
7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century
(2009).

Marshall, Andrew W., Martin, J. J., and Rowen, Henry S.
On Not Confusing Ourselves: Essays on National Security Strategy in Honor of Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter
(1991).

Zarate, Robert, and Sokolski, Henry D., eds.
Nuclear Heuristics: Selected Writings of Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter
(2009).

Arms Control

Albright, David.
Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America’s Enemies
(2010).

Kaufman, Robert Gordon.
Arms Control during the Pre-Nuclear Era: The United States and Naval Limitation between the Two World Wars
(1990).

Newhouse, John.
Cold Dawn: The Story of SALT
(1989 ed.).

Nitze, Paul H., et al.
The Fateful Ends and Shades of SALT
(1979).

Reed, Thomas C.
At the Abyss: An Insider’s History of the Cold War
(2004).

Reed, Thomas C., and Stillman, Danny B.
The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation
(2009).

Sokolski, Henry, et al.
Pakistan’s Nuclear Future: Reining in the Risk
(December 2009).

Taubman, Philip.
The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb
(2012).

Wohlstetter, Roberta.
“The Buddha Smiles”: Absent-Minded Peaceful Aid and the Indian Bomb
, Monograph 3, Final Report to the Energy Research and Development Administration (May 1977, rev. November 1977).

History

Ambrose, Stephen E.
Eisenhower: Soldier and President
(1990).

Anderson, Martin, and Anderson, Annelise.
Reagan’s Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster
(2009).

Brown, Anthony Cave, ed.
Dropshot: The American Plan for World War III against Russia in 1957
(1978).

Bush, George W.
Decision Points
(2010).

Carlson, Peter. K
Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude, Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America’s Most Unlikely Tourist
(2009).

Cheney, Richard B.
In My Time
(2011).

Dobbs, Michael.
One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
(2009).

Fischer, Benjamin B.
A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare
(July 7, 2008 ed.)

Frank, Richard B.
Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire
(1999).

Gordon, Michael, and Trainor, Lt. Gen. Bernard E.
The Generals’ War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf
(1995).

Gott, Richard.
The Evolution of the Independent British Deterrent
(1963).

Groves, Leslie M.
Now It Can be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project
(1962).

Hoffman, David E.
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy
(2009).

Karpin, Michael.
The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What It Means for the World
(2006).

Kempe, Frederick.
Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
(2011).

Kissinger, Henry.
Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises
(2003).

Kissinger, Henry.
Diplomacy
(1994).

Kissinger, Henry.
On China
(2009).

Kissinger, Henry.
White House Years
(1979).

Kissinger, Henry.
Years of Renewal
(1998).

Kissinger, Henry.
Years of Upheaval
(1982).

Kozak, Warren.
LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay
(2009). Lacouture, Jean.
DeGaulle: The Ruler, 1945–1970
(1991).

Miscamble, Wilson D.,
CSC. The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan
(2011).

Nakdimon, Shlomo.
First Strike: The Exclusive Story of How Israel Foiled Iraq’s Attempt to Get the Bomb
(1987).

Nitze, Paul H.
From Hiroshima to Glasnost: At the Center of Decision—A Memoir
(1989).

Polmar, Norman.
The Enola Gay: The B-29 That Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
(2004).

Polmar, Norman, and Allen, Thomas B.
Rickover: Father of the Nuclear Navy
(2007).

Rumsfeld, Donald.
Known and Unknown: A Memoir
(2011).

Rusk, Dean.
As I Saw It
(1990).

Thompson, Nicholas.
The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
(2009).

Timmerman, Kenneth.
Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran
(2005).

Trofimov, Yaroslav.
The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Episode in Islam’s Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda
(2007).

Wittner, Lawrence S.
Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement
(2009).

Reports

The Acheson-Lilienthal Report: Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy.
Department of State Publication 2498 (March 16, 1946).

Other books

Off the Crossbar by David Skuy
Mechanical by Bruno Flexer
Cobalt by Shelley Grace
Debt of Ages by Steve White
Come To Me by Thompson, LaVerne
The New Rules for Blondes by Coppock, Selena
All the Paths of Shadow by Frank Tuttle