For nearly half a century, Paul Nitze was one of the chief architects of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. Nitze served as assistant defense secretary from 1961-1963. In the interview he discusses the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. He describes his support of the idea of a quarantine, followed by an airstrike if necessary, noting that he was ready to do whatever necessary to achieve the objective of getting the Soviet missile out of Cuba. During EXCOMM meetings, he argued against Secretary McNamara, who was saying that the missiles didnt change the strategic balance. Nitze notes that the Cuban Missile Crisis war related to the American-Soviet tension over the concurrent situation in Berlin. He never thought there was much of a possibly of nuclear war during the Missile Crisis because of the American conventional superiority, from which re draws the lesson that a country is secure with both a conventional and nuclear superiority, and shouldnt rely solely on its nuclear forces.
![Interview with Paul Nitze, 1986 [3]](https://bpldcassets.blob.core.windows.net/derivatives/metadata/commonwealth-oai:hh63vt324/image_thumbnail_300.jpg)
![War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Paul Nitze, 1986 [3]](https://bpldcassets.blob.core.windows.net/derivatives/metadata/commonwealth-oai:vx024v38s/image_thumbnail_300.jpg)
