U.S. Strategy for Nuclear Response

I have been reading your excellent series of articles (“U.S. Shifts Nuclear Response Strategy, Part I, July 23, 24, 25) on nuclear targeting with great interest.

It seems to me that the Pentagon planners must be doing a good deal of their planning in a vacuum. They seem to be operating on the assumption that the Pentagon leadership is invulnerable to the same type of “decapitation” they have in mind for the Soviets.

It seems to me the Pentagon and the United States as a whole are every bit as vulnerable as the Soviet Union. In fact, I believe we are more vulnerable, because the Soviet Union is so spread out, and other things being equal, there is a much greater area for radiation to dissipate in that country.

Besides that, the heavily populated portion of the Soviet Union is right next to the Europe we’re trying to defend. Are we willing to let loose the radiation of a thousand or more Chernobyls to “decapitate” the Soviet leaders?

I therefore urge the Pentagon planners to rethink the “decapitation” concept. The cap they preserve may be their own.

PAUL JONES

Long Beach