Nuclear weapons and regional conflict
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., El Segundo, CA (United States)
An important national defense objective for the US in the post cold-war era -- according to Secretary of Defense, Cheney is to deter regional conflicts. To satisfy this objective there is more or less general agreement that nuclear weapons are not needed, especially against regional powers like Iraq that do not (as yet) have a nuclear capability. Modern conventional weapons (PGMs), it is believed, are adequate when used in the traditional way of fighting: massive ground forces with heavy ground equipment, supported by air and naval forces. Of course, there are arguments against this view. For example, nuclear advocates call attention to deeply buried targets that are unattackable with conventional munitions. But this argument, and others, for US use (or threat of use) of nuclear weapons are presently discounted in favor of the political/moral advantages of a no-first-use policy. We do not wish to take sides in this debate. We believe, however, that the debate win continue as political, military, technical and economic factors undergo inevitable changes. In this brief paper, we want to present another pro-nuclear argument which, to the best of our knowledge, has received little or no attention. This argument, we believe, could become important in weighing the pros and cons of the debate if domestic pressures cause the defense budget to undergo such severe cuts that we must either abandon our political commitments or adopt a non-traditional war-fighting strategy that is effective under a greatly reduced defense budget.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10176674
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID--113649; ON: DE93017964
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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