This policy (MAD) has been approved, through the political processes of the democratic nations it protects, since about 1950. More important, it works. Caspar Weinberger, US Secretary of Defense
I was concerned because rightly or wrongly, without in any way attacking the credibility or accuracy of the press, I was concerned that the impression was being given that we have a large unit in the Pentagon that was assigned to fighting protracted nuclear wars and that is totally wrong. Casper Weinberger
cf.
Reagan prepares plan for protracted nuclear war. On the orders of the Reagan administration, the Pentagon completed a strategic master plan last week to give the United States the capability of winning a protracted nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The document was delivered to the National Security Council (NSC) and is awaiting final presidential approval. Guardian newspaper article 17th August 1982
I call upon the scientific community [sic] in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons obsolete. Ronald Reagan
Let me share with you a vision of the future that offers hope. It is that we embark on a program to counter the awesome Soviet missile threat with measures that are defensive. Ronald Reagan
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk. Ronald Reagan
It seems to me almost certain that any one of these forms of direct military action will lead to a Soviet military response of some type some place in the world. Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968
It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives. Robert McNamara
But they may be thinking they can either bargain Berlin and Cuba against each other, or that they can provoke us into the kind of action in Cuba which would give an umbrella for them to take action with respect to Berlin. If they can provoke us into taking the first overt action then the world would be confused and they would have what they would consider justification for making a move somewhere else. For the first time I am beginning really to wonder whether Mr Khrushchev is entirely rational about Berlin because if they shoot those missiles we are in general nuclear war. Dean Rusk, Secretary of State
Acquiring nuclear weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty. Osama bin Laden
Some people have suggested along a number of lines of evidence that there may have been atomic warfare, atomic bombs, atomic explosions in the very distant past. Dr Robert M Schoch
In 1983 there were two superpowers. Both possessed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet several times over. Neither knew what the other side was thinking. In the course of a year a series of disconnected events convinced the elderly Soviet leadership that America was about to attack. 1983: The Brink of Apocalypse, Channel 4 2008
Able Archer was a war game designed to test communications. Out in the forest of West Germany. ibid.
Soviet suspicions of the West were deep-rooted ... They had over eleven thousand nuclear warheads. ibid.
Reagan began spending over a trillion dollars a year on defense. ibid.
If Reagan’s arms build-up and belligerent speeches unnerved the ageing Soviets, this was just the beginning. Only two weeks after the Evil Empire speech Reagan announced his most expensive, technically demanding weapons project to date: the Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as Star Wars. ibid.
Five missiles appeared to be in the air. Incredibly Petrov’s instinct proved correct. The five nuclear missiles were nothing more than high altitude clouds. ibid.
In 1983 the tensions between the superpowers were at their highest for a generation. So it may seem strange, incredible even, that there was only one man who could tell the West what the Soviets were really thinking: Oleg Gordievsky. ibid.
CND has its biggest rally ever: 200,000 marched in London; another 600,000 in Germany. ibid.
Agent Topaz’ intelligence was unique. And the Soviets were hungry for more. He responded by gaining access to the most secret document in NATO: it was called MC161. ibid.
Who is the biggest violator of the non-proliferation treaty? The United States of America. We signed a pledge that we would begin to disarm and we’re not doing it; we’re expanding our nukes. Who the hell are we going to nuke? Mike Gravel, Democratic Party Nominee 2009
The target for Greenpeace was nuclear testing. What the Green Movement Got Wrong 2010
During the ’70s the Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons grew into a world-wide force. At the same time the new industry of nuclear power was growing. It was a carbon-dioxide free source of constant energy. But from the outset the industry was controversial. It was secretive. The extent of Britain’s worst nuclear accident in 1957 at Windscale in Cumbria was concealed, and subsequent leaks there and at other plants were covered up. ibid.
A partial meltdown occurred at the Three Island Nuclear Plant on America’s east coast. No-one died but the nuclear industry there never recovered. ibid.
Soviet authorities tried at first to conceal the accident. A cloud of radiation spread across Europe. First reports said five million people were contaminated, and that at least one million would die of cancer. ibid.
India and China are investing in nuclear whether environmentalists like it or not. ibid.
It’s clean, safe and cheap. Penn & Teller: Bullshit! s5e9: Nukes Hybrids & Lesbians
No new reactors have been built in the US since in the 1970s. ibid.
This is America’s Doomsday plane. It’s the flying fortress from which the president could run the country and direct US forces in an emergency. American Doomsday
These plans are shrouded in secrecy ... The plans have evolved over the years to account for new threats but the goal remains the same: survival of the federal government. ibid.
First move: protect the president. ibid.
On this the third, or is it the fourth, anniversary of a nuclear misunderstanding which led to the Third World War … The Bed Sitting Room 1969 starring Peter Cook & Peter Sellers & Spike Milligan & Harry Secombe & Ralph Richardson & Dudley Moore & Rita Tushingham & Arthur Lowe & Roy Kinnear & Jimmy Edwards & Ronald Fraser & Michael Hordern & Marty Feldman et al, director Richard Lester, BBC man
Do you know who was the enemy? ibid. doctor
Radiation’s rising: still, one mustn’t grumble too much. ibid. bloke
I would like nuclear fusion to become a practical power source. It would provide an inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming. Stephen Hawking
A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us. Margaret Thatcher
Without perestroika, the cold war simply would not have ended. But the world could not continue developing as it had, with the stark menace of nuclear war ever present. Mikhail Gorbachev
As far as US intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don’t know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they’re developing what’s called ‘nuclear capability’, which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That’s not a crime. Noam Chomsky
There are two problems for our species’ survival – nuclear war and environmental catastrophe – and we’re hurtling towards them. Knowingly. Noam Chomsky
Unlike Iran, Israel refuses to allow inspections at all, refuses to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, has hundreds of nuclear weapons, has advanced delivery systems. Noam Chomsky
It’s a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided. Noam Chomsky
A viable non-proliferation regime depends crucially on the implementation of the obligation to disarm nuclear weapons as well as the obligation not to acquire them. Noam Chomsky, Failed States audio