Interview with Robert McNamara, 1986 [3]

Item Information

Title:
Interview with Robert McNamara, 1986 [3]
Description:
Robert McNamara was the U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1961-1968. He opens the interview with an explanation of why there are 7,000 tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, saying that it was reduced from 15,000. In the course of discussing a number of significant theoretical questions of deterrence and nuclear and conventional deployment policies, Mr. McNamara makes the assertion that deterrence has been achieved through a basic conventional balance, and that it is a misperception that only the nuclear threat restrains the Soviets from a conventional attack. He calls the idea, favored by some in Europe, of persuading the Soviets that they are facing "madmen" in the West extremely dangerous. He criticizes the Skybolt program as a "pile of junk," nevertheless he notes that the Kennedy administration was reluctant to provide the British with Polaris missiles because of the problems it would cause with the French. The Kennedy administration, he insists, did not seek a monopoly on nuclear weapons, but wanted allied participation in the development of plans and strategies. He dismisses the MLF idea as "a hardware solution to a political problem." Drawing lessons from the Cuban missile crisis he points to the grave danger of the unauthorized use of nuclear weapons, and further concludes that such weapons have very little military utility. Vietnam, he says, had little impact on U.S. strategic nuclear thinking. He provides a succinct explanation of the concept of crisis instability. He then discusses at length his disagreement with the perceived need for more and more accurate missiles. Responding to the question of what is wrong with having a first-strike capability, he claims that the level of damage to the U.S. from launching a first strike and from retaliating with a second strike would be essentially the same. The point, he argues, is to avoid a first strike by either side.
Interviewee:
McNamara, Robert S., 1916-2009
Date:
October 31, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Nuclear warfare
Deterrence (Strategy)
Tactical nuclear weapons
MX (Weapons system)
Healey, Denis
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
Military weapons
Warfare, Conventional
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Great Britain
Nuclear weapons
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Soviet Union
Trident (Weapons systems)
Dulles, John Foster, 1888-1959
Power, Thomas S. (Thomas Sarsfield), 1905-1970
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
Places:
United States
Germany
France
Cuba
Extent:
00:38:27:07
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_57B0C41B71DF46678459A33505F76E87
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_57B0C41B71DF46678459A33505F76E87