Panic at the Pentagon

For some time now, defense analysts have worried about the nation’s command, control and communications system, which provides the vital link between decision-makers in Washington and military forces around the world. In the event of nuclear attack on the United States, the order to respond in kind would go from the President through the command and control system to the land-based, sea-based and bomber-based legs of the nuclear triad. The policy of deterrence depends on the message getting through.

Apparently, though, there is scant reason to believe that it will. A recent report by Bruce Blair for the congressional Office of Technology Assessment apparently concluded that the communications system itself was frighteningly vulnerable to a Soviet “decapitation” strike, which would sever the nation’s military head from the rest of its military body. We say “apparently” because when this report reached the Pentagon the conclusion was found to be so appalling that the study was immediately raised to the highest classification level, Single Integrated Operation Plan--Extremely Sensitive Information. At this level, only the President and a handful of top Pentagon officials may read it. Even Blair, the author, who has top-secret clearance, may not read what he wrote. Copies of the report were gathered up and taken to the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where they were destroyed in a special incinerator.

What’s the worst part of this, the fact that the nation’s entire nuclear strategy rests on a shaky foundation or the fact that the government doesn’t want its citizens to know it? (The Soviets already know it. Blair and others have reached the same conclusion in less detail in publicly available books.) In our democracy, the people have a voice in setting policy, but they can raise it only if they have the facts.

The nuclear standoff that has maintained world peace since shortly after World War II is terrifying enough. Now it turns out that the elaborate system that has been developed in the name of deterrence may well not work. Since only a handful of people know what is in Blair’s report, it’s impossible to know whether this fatal defect can be fixed.