[Lancelot Jones]

"Mutually assured destruction was part of the strategy."

Not at all.

If I research it enough, I'll probably confirm my suspicion that a non-military source coined the phrase "mutually assured destruction."

The U.S. was always convinced that we could survive a Soviet nuclear attack, and that our anti-ICBM system could handle a large portion of any first strike.

In reality, releasing one tenth of the world's nuclear ordnance would have destroyed all humanity via what a study by American scientists R.P. Turco, O.B. Toon, T.P. Ackerman, J.B. Pollack, and Carl Sagan named the "Nuclear Winter."

Beauseant!

[SittinYonder]

MAD wasn't a military battle plan, it was a policy or a doctrine intended to prevent the Soviets from a first strike.

[r9etb]

If I research it enough, I'll probably confirm my suspicion that a non-military source coined the phrase "mutually assured destruction."

IIRC, it was the father of the Edsel, Robert McNamara, who coined the term.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"Tancredo's irresponsible grandstanding could possibly cost some (or many) American lives, and if it does, he should be tried impeached, and convicted of manslaughter."

Your post was so venomous, I want to add another remark. Not only would such fear erode our war effort completely, but that is pretty low to attempt to muzzle this important discussion through that kind of intimidation tactic. Do you realize how tyrannical something like that would be? A huge violation of free speech.

The very reason why this debate is needed can be seen by people trying to flee from Cold War history. And the same kind of 'manslaughter' threat could have muzzled Reagan when he ran for president. That was pure venom.

[TomasUSMC]

The U.S. was always convinced that we could survive a Soviet nuclear attack, and that our anti-ICBM system could handle a large portion of any first strike.

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We never had and still do not have an anti-ICBM system.