War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Larry Smith, 1987
Description:
Larry Smith was chief of staff to Senator Tom McIntyre (D-NH) in the mid-1970s. McIntyre was Chairman of the Military Research and Development subcommittee. The interview's initial questions cover a range of topics relating to the MX debate in Congress, including the major deliberations over the advisability of land-based systems. He discusses questions concerning the defense of Europe, Mutual Assured Destruction, the risks of increasing missile accuracy, and the pros and cons of a no-first-use policy. Describing the history of the MX program, he compares it to a novel with a series of chapters, each with its own narrative and cast of characters. He goes into detail on the Air Force's search for a basing system that would make the MX survivable, and recounts some of the basic thinking and complicated discussions that occurred with military officers on the subject. He then describes some of the many options for basing that were considered. From there he discusses how the current state of deployment came about, and his conclusion that neither superpower is going to start a nuclear conflict with the aim of scoring military or political gains. It is his belief that the U.S. has still not answered basic questions of strategy such as what purpose its nuclear arsenal serves. On the topic of technology and its role in pushing new developments, he replies that the fact that something can be invented does not make it a good thing.
