Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is the name given to the US policy in effect for many years.  It was probably developed by John von Neuman and co-workers.  John von Neuman died in 1957 at age 53.  The basic idea is that US Strategic Nuclear Forces were in such number and physical protection that the US could ride out a Soviet First Strike and retaliate with sufficient weapons to retaliate.  The current Wikipedia entry describes it as a Nash equilibrium.

Strategic Planners brag that Deterrence Worked.

I went into tactical command and control because that is where the work needed to be done.  I tried to avoid Strategic stuff because there was a whole lot of  noise associated with the funding of strategic weapons systems.

A wiser coworker developed a graphical display of a "nuclear laydown".  He used an HP TRS-80 to drive a flat bed plotter.  His work with the HP TRS-80 grew into a facility housing the most user friendly IBM system a 4341.  The IBM 4341 system could accommodate about 10 user terminals.

The facility was TEMPEST tested.  It was expensive.

The coworker developed an event-driven Monte Carlo simulation model which our customers liked very much.  For simulations, we considered 30 repetitions to be a large number.

I was able to use the system to support the Joint Chiefs of Staff in collecting the Operational Information Requirements for the World Wide Military Command and Control System.  This was useful work and it help my employer be in a position to bid on and win contracts.

As happens in Defense work, I needed continued employment and I had skills relevant to the analyses of the simulation runs.  I performed some analysis that was "well received" by everybody with a physics background.  It ran into problems with MAD people because my analysis is likely to lead to a "Use or Lose Decision Point".  The Measure of Effectiveness I was forced to use to get any perceived benefit to communication architecture alternatives is "additional decision time."

The analysis was labelled a "LUA" analysis and essentially went no further.  LUA is the acronym for
Launch Under Attack.  LUA scenarios were "not well received."

Proponents of MAD as part of US and USSR strategic doctrine believed that nuclear war could best be prevented if neither side could expect survive a full-scale nuclear exchange as a functioning state.  Since the credibility of the threat is critical to such assurance, each side had to invest substantial capital in their nuclear arsenals even if they were not intended for use.  In addition, neither side could be expected or allowed to adequately defend itself against the other's missiles.  This led both to the hardening and diversification of nyclear delivery systems (such as nuclear missile silos, ballistic missile submarines , and nuclear bombers kept at fail-save points) and to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

The MAD scenarion is often referred to as nuclear deterrence.  The term "deterrence" was first used in this context after World War II, prior to that time, its use was limited to legal terminology.