War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Robert Sprague, 1986
Description:
Robert Sprague was Co-Director of the United States Presidential Commission on Defense under Eisenhower. In the interview he discusses his role in preparing the Gaither Report. He describes his views on the vulnerability of the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC). He describes General LeMay, head of SAC, as his "role model of a general," especially for his gung-ho attitude towards defending the U.S. from Soviet nuclear attack. He describes his attempts to persuade government officials, including President Eisenhower in a private meeting, that SAC needed greater retaliatory capabilities, in addition to the Gaither Report's recommendation for fallout shelters. He describes the reactions of Eisenhower and other officials, who did not respond as the members of the Gaither Report Steering Committee wanted, as well as the reactions of those Steering Committee members (William Foster and Paul Nitze, according to Mr. Sprague) who leaked information from the report to the public. He explains the way the development of the U-2 reconnaissance plane changed the nature of U.S. intelligence gathering, and its impact on Soviet ICBM development.
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