Lives in the Balance: The Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991

249 Pages·1992·1.245 MB·English

by  Moti Nissani

Lives in the Balance
The Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991
Moti Nissani
Note: Page numbers in the Contents and Index refer to the paperback version of this book, not to this digital version.
Superscripts throughout the text refer to notes and citations (which can be found in the Notes and References Section at
the end of this book).
Back Cover (of paperback original)
Besides providing an integrated, self-contained history of the Cold War, Lives in the Balance throws new
light on subjects as diverse as the nature of freedom, American Third World policies, roots of collective
misbehavior, and reform strategies. Lives in the Balance should be of special interest to those wishing to
understand or change the realities of American politics.
"The voyage into a better future must begin with a careful study of the past. The Soviet Union is no more,
but others could readily take its place as Chief Enemy of the Republic. The Cold War is at a low ebb now,
but the forces which created and sustained it are still commanding the dikes. If we wish to avoid another half
a century of racing with Russia, Japan, or some other nation, if we wish to avoid another half a century of
crimes against nature and our fellow passengers to the grave, if humanity is to realize the age-old dream of
continual progress, these forces must be contained. The containment manual can only be culled from the
pages of history, and, especially, from the pages of Cold War America."-from the Preface
"Lives in the Balance does a remarkable job of integrating vast amounts of information about nuclear
weapons and the Cold War, and it does so with a rare degree of common sense and skepticism about the
conventional wisdom. Moti Nissani's interdisciplinary approach provides many fascinating insights and
speculations about the psychology and politics of American foreign policy and about what may be necessary
to create more humane policies in the future."-William A. Schwartz, co-author, The Nuclear Seduction
A holder of degrees in genetics, philosophy, and psychology, Dr. Nissani brings an unusual background to his
interdisciplinary review of the Cold War and American politics. Before joining the faculty of Wayne State
University, he studied, fought, or taught in six American states, Israel, and Australia. His most recent
technical articles show that human beings are surprisingly resistant to conceptual change.
Publication Data
© 1992 by Moti Nissani
Published in 1992 by Hollowbrook Communications, Inc. in cooperation with the Dowser Publishing Group.
Distribution Information: Out of Print.
Cover painting: Enemies of the Mexican People by Juan O'Gorman.
The following granted permission to quote previously published materials: Beacon Press, The Media Monopoly (1987;
second edition), by Ben H. Bagdikian; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Quantification of Occupational Cancer (1981),
edited by R. Peto and M. Schneiderman; Harper & Row, Brave New World Revisited (1959) by Aldous Huxley;
Houghton Mifflin Company, Nuclear Hostages (1983) by Bernard O'Keefe and Cleaning Up America (1976) by John
R. Quarles, Jr.; MacMillan Publishing Company, War and Politics (1973) by Bernard Brodie; Random House, Russian
Roulette (1982) by Arthur Macy Cox; Swallow Turn Music, Warner Brothers, and Jackson Browne, Lives in the
Balance + 1986 by Jackson Browne.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Nissani, Moti, 1947-
Lives in the Balance: The Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991
p. cm.
Includes bibliography and an index.
ISBN 0-89341-658-4 (cloth); ISBN 0-89341-659-2 (pbk).
1. American Politics. 2. History. 3. Cold War, 1945-1991.
4. Reform strategies. I. Title.
UA10.N57 1991
355.02'17+dc20 90-27114
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Publication Data
Backcover
Motto
Preface
Chapter 1: TOTALITARIANISM 1
• What is Freedom? 2
• Life in a Dictatorship 6
• The Nature of Totalitarianism 7
• The Soviet Union: 1917-1984 9
• Totalitarian Foreign Policies 23 (Soviet Foreign Policies: 1917-1984 / China and Tibet:
1950-1991 / Sparta and the City States of Ancient Greece)
• The Soviet Union, 1985-1991: End of an Era 31
• The Myth of Authoritarian Efficiency 36
• Summary 39
Chapter 2: CONSEQUENCES OF NUCLEAR WAR 42
• Types of Nuclear Bombs 42
• Effects of a Single Nuclear Explosion 44 (Ultraviolet Pulse / Electromagnetic Pulse / Heat
/ Blast / Ionizing Radiation / Hiroshima)
• Effects of a Large Nuclear Explosion 54
• Effects of a Limited Nuclear War 57
• Consequences of Nuclear War 57 (Direct Consequences / Indirect Consequences)
• Reality of Nuclear Peril 69
• Summary 76
Chapter 3: COSTS OF THE ARMS RACE 78
• Military Costs 78
• Conventional Wars 81
• Economic and Human Costs 82
• Environmental Costs 84
• Moral and Psychological Costs 86
• Militarism, Imperialism, and Plutodemocracy 86
• The Arms Race or Totalitarianism? 89
• Summary 90
Chapter 4: WEAPONS OF THE COLD WAR 92
• A Note on Military Jargon 92
• Conventional Weapons 93
• Chemical and Biological Weapons 94
• Nuclear Bombs 95
• Delivery Vehicles 95 (Bombers and Cruise Missiles / Ballistic Missiles )
• Strategic Requirements of Nuclear Weapons and Delivery Vehicles 97
• Command, Control, and Communication 98
• Satellites 99
• Summary 100
Chapter 5: STRATEGIC THINKING IN THE UNITED STATES 102
• Two Interpretations of Western Military and Foreign Policies 102 (Deterrence /
Brinkmanship)
• Victory in the 1980s? 108
• Future Victory? 109
• New Nuclear Weapons? 113
• A Window of Vulnerability? 115
• Launch Under Attack? 118
• Nuclear Retaliation? 119
• Concluding Remarks 120
• Summary 121
Chapter 6: THE MILITARY BALANCE 123
• Overkill 123
• A Note on the Reliability of Data 126
• The Nuclear Balance 129 (Number of Deliverable Nuclear Bombs / Explosive Yield /
Survivability of Nuclear Weapons / Defensive Measures / The Overall Nuclear Balance )
• The Conventional Balance 137 (Standing Armies and Ground Forces / Airplanes / Tanks
/ Navies / Interventionary Forces )
• Other Factors Affecting the Military Balance 142 (Technology / National Economies /
Democracy / Allies / Internal Dissension / Homeland Invasion / Organizational
Inefficiencies / Additional Soviet Advantages)
• Concluding Remarks 152
• Summary 152
Chapter 7: HISTORY OF THE COLD WAR 155
• Peace or War? 156
• Atomic Secrecy 167
• The Baruch Plan 169
• Developing the H-Bomb 171
• The Moment of Hope: May 10, 1955 172
• The Comprehensive Test Ban 174
• The 1980s 178
• General Characteristics of the Arms Race 185
• Summary 193
Chapter 8: BRINKMANSHIP AND IMPERIALISM? 195
• Nuclear Diplomacy 195
• American Intervention in the Third World 202 American Nuclear and Third World
• Policies: An Appraisal 218
• Summary 221
Chapter 9: ROOTS OF COLLECTIVE MISBEHAVIOR 223
• Organizational Characteristics 225 (Organizational Callousness / Organizational Self-
Destructiveness / Institutional Decay / Institutional Rigidity / Institutional Inertia /
Money and Politics / Revolving Doors / Elections and Officials)
• Information 243 (Corporate Media / Government / Experts / Education)
• Human Characteristics 257 (Individual Callousness / Indoctrinability / Conceptual
Conservatism / Conformity / Obedience to Authority / Other Human Failings)
• Summary 271
Chapter 10: A SURGICAL REFORM STRATEGY 273
• Has Humanity a Future? 273
• Successful Reform Presupposes
• an Informed Public 275
• Forlorn Strategies 275
• A Surgical Reform Strategy 278
• Summary 283
Notes and References 284
Index 309
Lives in the Balance
The Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991
They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars.
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars.
I want to know who the men in the shadows are;
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die.
And there are lives in the balance;
There are people under fire;
There are children at the cannons;
And there is blood on the wire.
Jackson Browne, 1986
PREFACE
History tells us that freedom cannot be taken for granted: to remain free, a democratic society must
be willing and able to defend itself. History also tells us that cold wars--especially when
accompanied by conflicting ideologies, huge standing armies, and feverish arms races--have an
alarming tendency of erupting, sooner or later, into full-scale wars. From 1945 through 1991, these
two lessons from the past confronted the West with a seemingly hopeless dilemma: if it unilaterally
laid down its arms, it faced the prospect of totalitarianism; if it did not, it faced the prospect of the
arms race and nuclear war. Thousands of books and articles treat one or another aspect of this
historical dilemma, but no published work known to me integrates all its aspects into a self-
contained whole. This book attempts to close this surprising gap.
Such an integrated approach is rarely encountered, and for excellent reasons. Most historians are
not in a position to carry out the extensive preparatory work which this approach requires. For the
most part, interdisciplinary studies are forced to rely on secondary, and sometimes unreliable and
outdated, sources of information. Because they compress many facts and ideas into a single volume,
they require greater concentration on the reader's part. Because they are aimed at a large audience of
specialists and laymen, they must eschew technical language, thereby inviting the scorn of those
who do not know the difference between clarity and fatuity.
These shortcomings are counterbalanced, in part, by the potential contributions of integrative
reviews to scholarship. Reality is a web, not a collection of parallel lines. Those who fail to see the
interconnections run the risk of one-dimensional vision. Thus, broad reviews hold a greater promise
of bringing us closer to complex truths than the many important but one-sided studies upon which
they are based.
My second justification for skipping across traditional disciplines is practical. Its essence is
captured in Plato's cave fable, in which the inmates mistake shadows for the realities of the sunny
world above. In some way or another, we are all tethered in a cave of political illiteracy. To begin
seeing the light, we must question some of our most fundamental assumptions. We must then dig up
facts in thousands of informative, but limited, articles and books. We must also, as we go along,
transform the myriad of new images into one coherent whole. But life is short; even those who
already question basic political premises are not often in a position to sift through and assemble the
pieces of the political jigsaw puzzle. Somehow, they must grope for a realistic world view on the
basis of partial and fragmentary evidence. The record of both ancient and modern democracies is
unequivocal: all too often their citizens vote and act against their convictions and interests. Such
gaps can only be closed by means of shortcuts: the information that emerges from the vast
specialized literature must be integrated and convincingly presented in a single book.
My own record, I am afraid, is no exception. Twenty years ago I felt that the United States stood for
democracy and justice. Had the opportunity presented itself, and much as I hated guns and
regimentation, I would have gone to Vietnam. I had little patience with the people who would have
us betray the cause of freedom by building fewer missiles and bombs. I have had since then the rare
opportunity of researching the subject on a full-time basis for over six years, free from the
obligations of teaching or making a living. Although these years of study and contemplation
detracted nothing from my commitment to liberty, they forced me to drastically revise my views of
Cold War America.
These years have also convinced me that the voyage into a better future must begin with a careful
study of the past. The Soviet Union is no more, but others could readily take its place as Chief
Enemy of the Republic. The Cold War is at a low ebb now, but the forces which created and
sustained it are still commanding the dikes. If we wish to avoid another half a century of racing
with Russia, Japan, or some other nation, if we wish to avoid another half a century of crimes
against nature and our fellow passengers to the grave, if humanity is to realize the age-old dream of
continual progress, these forces must be contained. The containment manual can only be culled
from the pages of history, and, especially, from the pages of Cold War America.
A few words are in order about the general organization of this book. From 1945 through 1991,
American policy makers explained the arms race in something like the following terms. We have
been forced, they said, to choose between two unpleasant alternatives: a sure totalitarian takeover of
the free world or life in the shadows of the arms race and nuclear war. Chapters 1-3 show that both
totalitarianism and the arms race are indeed highly objectionable. Following a brief introduction to
the weapons of this period (Chapter 4), the book goes on to examine the claim that the United
States and its democratic allies had to choose between the arms race and totalitarianism (Chapters
5-8). The book does so by reviewing (5) the ideas that have allegedly guided our military policies,
(6) the Soviet-American military balance, (7) the history of the Cold War, and (8) American policies
in the Third World. Taken together, these four chapters show that the dilemma between the arms
race and totalitarianism has been strictly imaginary. In the real world, the West could have lived in
peace and freedom. The book then goes on to examine the causes of collective misbehavior in
military affairs, environmental issues, and other areas (Chapter 9). The book concludes by sketching
a simple new road into a safer, freer, more prosperous and just, future (Chapter 10).
Readers who know little about the Cold War and American politics, as well as readers who wish to
closely follow the central argument of this book, may choose to read it from cover to cover. Others
may prefer to view this book as a collection of essays on a wide variety of topics. For instance,
historians of the Soviet-American military balance may be interested in my unconventional
treatment of this issue. Likewise, environmentalists and social reformers with no interest in military
affairs might still wish to look up Chapters 2, 3, 9, and 10. Finally, the unusually broad scope of this
book allows it, on occasion, to place familiar subjects in a new light. Specialists might therefore go
quickly through well-worn material and slow down when they come across unfamiliar reflections.
At one stage or another, this book benefited from the comments of Jerry Bails, Peter H. Burr,
Nathalie Marshall-Nadel, James B. Michels, Christina W. O'Bryan, Alvin M. Saperstein, William A.
Schwartz, George Ziegler, and members of my immediate family. I can only hope that this book
justifies, in some small measure, the many sacrifices that Donna, Eric, Ethan, and Helen were asked
to make on its behalf. All four have my love and heartfelt thanks.
Chapter 1:TOTALITARIANISM
It's incredible to me that after fifty years of Soviet power, paradise should be kept under lock and
key.
1a
Nikita Khrushchev
And now the forces marshalled around the concept of the group have declared a war of
extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by
repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammer-blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind
is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have
taken.
And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing
in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes,
undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys
the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a
pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such
a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one
thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost.
2
John Steinbeck

Throughout the Cold War, the omnipresent doomsday clock stood as a reminder of the abiding peril
of nuclear war. Other doomsday clocks could be visualized too. If we take the environmental
situation as a whole, we can imagine a doomsday clock which has been relentlessly moving toward
3
midnight since World War II. This is not the place to establish the reality and magnitude of this
peril; we only need note in passing that it is in this context that one hears speculations about
whether humanity shall go out with a whimper or a bang.
One can imagine yet a third doomsday clock and a third way of going out. The clock I have in mind
is a totalitarian clock. The peril is not to our physical, but spiritual, existence; not of something new,
but of something as old as the human species. "The atom bomb . . . is equaled by . . . the threat of
4
totalitarian rule . . . By one, we lose life; by the other, a life that is worth living."
This chapter demonstrates the existence of this third clock. It raises a few theoretical issues
concerning freedom and slavery. It portrays the dark reality of life under the totalitarian yoke and,
by presenting this reality almost side by side with the reality of nuclear war and the arms race
(Chapters 2, 3), it attempts to show that we must never forget either one or the other.
What is Freedom?
I shall begin by proposing a practical definition of freedom. If given the chance to think this matter
through, most people might concede that freedom is made up of at least six components.
Political freedom encompasses such rights as voting, running for political office, sitting on juries, or
belonging to opposition political parties.