[thechat] Getting closer

[John Handelaar]

On Sun, 2003-02-09 at 23:41, Erik Mattheis wrote:

> > More propaganda.  In fact NATO operated a first strike
> > policy from about 1964 onwards.  Google for a half-decent
> > definition of 'NATO and 'flexible response' ' for details.
>
> The definition I see as most complete from the first 10 google results
> is
>
> <http://www.nuclearfiles.org/strategy/flexible.html>
>
> ... which says it originally meant that Eisenhouer thought Nukes gave
> more bang for the buck, but around the year you cite, it changed to
> mean a greater presence of conventional forces in Europe in order to
> diminish the US's need for nuclear escalation and satisfy European
> allies at the same time.

The tactical groundrules were, however, that at the moment
'we' started to lose at any one of those levels, 'we' would
escalate.  No distinction was drawn between conventional
and nuclear weapons in the escalation scale.

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John Handelaar

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