Topic Explorer

The Topic Explorer uses the same search and topic filters for all of the different resources on this site. It is meant to allow easy cross-examination of different issues.

Topics

1940s (29) 1950s (32) 1960s (43) 1970s (21) 1980s (17) 1990s (8) 2000s (5) 2010s (24) Bush, George W. (1) Carter, James (6) Chain of command (15) Civilian-military divide (22) Clinton, William J. (2) Congress (21) Congressional Research Service (4) Constitutionality (6) Custody (22) Cybersecurity (3) Directives (6) Doctrine (20) Early warning systems (17) Eisenhower, Dwight D. (20) Ford, Gerald R. (2) France (12) India (11) Israel (7) Johnson, Lyndon B. (11) Kennedy, John F. (24) Law of war (9) Missiles (6) NATO (21) News Media (18) Nixon, Richard M. (11) Non-Use (8) North Korea (10) Nuclear accidents (17) Nuclear football (17) Nuclear launch procedure (32) Nuclear safety (34) Nuclear war plans (31) Obama, Barack (8) Oral history (1) Overseas deployment (19) Pakistan (17) People's Republic of China (15) Permissive Action Links (23) Predelegation (17) Presidential nuclear control (57) RAND Corporation (4) Reagan, Ronald (8) Remedies (5) Russian Federation (16) South Africa (1) Soviet Union (23) Succession (3) Truman, Harry S. (21) Trump, Donald J. (18) Two-man rule (9) United Kingdom (19) United States of America (126) US Air Force (21) US Atomic Energy Commission (15) US Department of Defense (28) US Department of Energy (5) US Joint Chiefs of Staff (17) US National Security Council (7) US Secretary of Defense (11) US Strategic Air Command (15) US Strategic Command (15) World War II (8)

Primers

Nuclear launch process: The nuclear launch process of the United States is a topic of high interest and importance but is also subject to considerable misunderstanding.
Presidential unilateral nuclear use authority under Truman: In the United States, the authority to use nuclear weapons is vested in the President of the United States.

Documents

Date ▲	Title	File
1946-08-01	US Atomic Energy Act of 1946	PDF
1948-09-10	NSC-30, "United States Policy on Atomic Warfare"	PDF
1952-09-10	NSC, "Agreed Concepts Regarding Atomic Weapons"	PDF
1957-02-06	"Authorization for the Expenditure of Nuclear Weapons" (Draft)	PDF
1958-10-15	Ikle (RAND), "On the Risk of an Accidental or Unauthorized Nuclear Detonation"	URL
1961-01-25	DDRS, Memorandum for the record by Brigadier Gen. A.J. Goodpaster outlines his meeting with President-elect Kennedy to inform Kennedy of procedures to be used in the event of a national emergency.	PDF
1961-07-16	Atomic Stockpiles Memorandum	PDF
1962-06-2	NSA, Permissive Links for Nuclear Weapons in NATO Memorandum No. 160	PDF
1963-03-22	NSA, Assignment of Highest National Priority to Project PAL (Permissive Links for Nuclear Weapons in NATO)	PDF
1963-05-29	NSA, Secret Memorandum from Jerome Bert Wiesner, Science Adviser to President Kennedy	PDF
1963-08-10	NSA, Permissive Link for Minuteman	PDF
1963-08-31	DDRS, Comments on Department of Defense Draft Memorandum: Strategic Striking Forces	PDF
1964-07-22	DDRS, Letter to McGeorge Bundy from the Deputy Secretary of Defense regarding the modified installation of permissive action link (PAL) devices on various weapons systems.	PDF
1964-12-01	DDRS, Briefing to the Gilpatric Committee by William J. Howard	PDF
1968-06	DOD, Strategic Offensive Weapons Employment in the Presence of Defenses (WEPS)	PDF
1969-08-26	DOD, WSEG Report 148 - Strategic Offensive Weapons Employment in the Time Period About 1975	PDF
1975	NSA, Categories of DOE designed PAL systems	PDF
1975-06	IDA, "The Evolution of U.S. Strategic Command and Control and Warning, 1945-1972"	PDF
1975-12-01	CRS, "Authority to order the use of nuclear weapons"	PDF
1978-02	OASOD, "History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 through September 1977"	PDF
1985-01	The Command and Control of Nuclear War	PDF
1987-08-21	National Security Decision Directive 281	PDF
1995-06-20	Written Statement of the Government of the United States (on the legality of nuclear weapons)	PDF
1996-02-12	USJCS, "Nuclear Supplement to Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan For FY 1996"	PDF
2010-04-06	2010 Nuclear Posture Review	PDF
2010-04-08	New START	PDF
2013-04-23	USAF, Air Force Instruction 91-104 (Two-Person Concept)	PDF
2014-10-02	USAF, Air Force Instruction 13-550 ("Air Force Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications")	PDF
2015-05-19	USAF, Annex 3-72 Nuclear Operations	PDF
2016-09-22	The Nuclear Necessity Principle	PDF

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Bibliographies

Abrams, Herbert L. "Human Reliability and Safety in the Handling of Nuclear Weapons." Science & Global Security 2 (1991): 325-34.

Allard, Kenneth. Command, Control, and the Common Defense. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.

Ambinder, Marc. "Failure Shuts Down Squadron of Nuclear Missiles." The Atlantic. October 26, 2010. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/failure-shuts-down-squadron-of-nuclear-missiles/65207/.

Ball, Desmond. Politics and Force Levels: The Strategic Missile Program of the Kennedy Administration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

Ball, Desmond and Jeffrey Richelson (eds). Strategic Nuclear Targeting. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Beres, Louis René. "What if you don’t trust the judgment of the president whose finger is over the nuclear button?" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. August 23, 2016. https://thebulletin.org/2016/08/what-if-you-dont-trust-the-judgment-of-the-president-whose-finger-is-over-the-nuclear-button/.

Blair, Bruce G. The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1993.

Blair, Bruce G. "Strengthening Checks on Presidential Nuclear Launch Authority." Arms Control Today 48, no. 1 (Jan/Feb 2018). https://www.armscontrol.org/sites/default/files/files/ACT/ACT_JanFeb18_Blair_Prepublication.pdf.

Born, Hans, Bates Gill, and Heiner Hänggi (eds). Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Bracken, Paul J. "Do we really want to eliminate the chance of accidental war?" Defense Analysis 4, no. 1 (1988): 81-89.

Burr, William. "Newly Declassified Documents on Advance Presidential Authorization of Nuclear Weapons Use." National Security Archive, August 30, 1998. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//news/predelegation2/predel2.htm.

Burr, William. "Consultation is Presidential Business": Secret Understandings on the Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1950-1974. Electronic Briefing Book No. 159. Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive, 2005. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB159/.

Burr, William. U.S. Presidents and the Nuclear Taboo. Briefing Book #611. Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive, 2017. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2017-11-30/us-presidents-nuclear-taboo.

Burr, William. Presidential Control of Nuclear Weapons: The "Football." Briefing Book #632. Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive, 2018. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2018-07-09/presidential-control-nuclear-weapons-football.

Burr, William. U.S. Nuclear War Plan Option Sought Destruction of China and Soviet Union as “Viable” Societies. Briefing Book #638. Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive, 2018. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2018-08-15/us-nuclear-war-plan-option-sought-destruction-china-soviet-union-viable-societies.

Caldwell, Dan. "Permissive action links: A description and proposal." Survival 29, no. 3 (May 1987): 224-238.

Conley, Jerome M. "Nuclear Command and Control in the Twenty-First Century: Trends, Disparities, and the Impact on Stability." In Debating 21st Century Nuclear Issues, edited by Owen Price and Jenifer Mackby, 226-250. Washington, D.C.: Center for International and Strategic Studies, 2007. https://www.csis.org/analysis/debating-21st-century-nuclear-issues.

Critchlow, Robert D. Nuclear Command and Control: Current Programs and Issues. CRS Report No. RL33408. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2006. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL33408.pdf.

Curry, Dan. Always/Never: The Quest for Safety, Control & Survivability. Documentary. Sandia National Laboratories, 2010.

Deaile, Melvin G. “The SAC Mentality.” Air & Space Power Journal 29, no. 2 (April 3, 2015): 48–73.

Deaile, Melvin G. Always at War: Organizational Culture in Strategic Air Command, 1946-62. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2018.

Demirjian, Karoun. "Trump’s nuclear authority divides senators alarmed by his ‘volatile’ behavior." Washington Post, November 14, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senators-deadlock-in-debate-over-whether-to-restrain-trumps-nuclear-launch-authority/2017/11/14/491a994a-c95b-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.5eecae311b16.

Eatinger, Robert. "Riddles of Armageddon: Legal Enigmas of a Nuke Launch Order." The Cipher Brief. January 23, 2018. https://www.thecipherbrief.com/riddles-armageddon-legal-enigmas-nuke-launch-order.

Eden, Lynn. Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.

Eden, Lynn. "The contingent taboo." Review of International Studies 36, no. 4 (October 2010): 831-837.

Ellsberg, Daniel. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Etzold, Thomas H. and John L. Gaddis. Containment: Documents on American Policy and Strategy, 1945-1950. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.

Feaver, Peter D. Guarding the Guardians: Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons in the United States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Feaver, Peter D. Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Feiveson, Harold A (ed). The Nuclear Turning Point: A Blueprint for Deep Cuts and De-Alerting of Nuclear Weapons. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1999.

Fitzpatrick, Mark. "Removing Nuclear Weapons from Turkey." Survival, 58, no. 5 (October-November 2016): 53-58.

Ford, Daniel F. The Button: The Pentagon’s Strategic Command and Control System. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Freedman, Lawrence. The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Futter, Andrew. "The double-edged sword: US nuclear command and control modernization." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. June 29, 2016. https://thebulletin.org/2016/06/the-double-edged-sword-us-nuclear-command-and-control-modernization/.

Gavin, Francis J. "The Myth of Flexible Response: United States Strategy in Europe during the 1960s." The International History Review 23, no. 4 (December 2001): 847-875

Goldstein, Yonkel. "The Failure of Constitutional Controls over War Powers in the Nuclear Age: The Argument for a Constitutional Amendment." Stanford Law Review 40, no. 6 (July 1988): 1543-1592.

Graff, Garrett M. "The President’s Secret Air Force." Politico. May 2, 2017. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/02/the-presidents-secret-air-force-215091.

Grossman, Elaine. "How Putin Might Yank Away Trump’s Control Over America’s Nuclear Weapons." War is Boring. July 3, 2017. https://warisboring.com/how-putin-might-yank-away-trumps-control-over-americas-nuclear-weapons/.

Gulley, Bill. Breaking Cover. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980.

Hering, Harold. "Nukes." Interview with Latif Nasser. Radiolab. Podcast audio, April 7, 2017. https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/nukes.

Hewlett, Richard G. and Oscar E. Anderson. The New World: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume I, 1939–1946. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962.

Hewlett Richard G., and Francis Duncan. Atomic Shield: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume II, 1947-1952. Washington, DC: United States Atomic Energy Commission, 1969.

Hoffman, David E. The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy. New York: Doubleday, 2009.

Hosenball, Mark and Phil Stewart. "Pentagon to lease privately owned Trump Tower apartment for nuclear 'football': letter." Reuters. May 5, 2017. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pentagon-trumptower/pentagon-to-lease-privately-owned-trump-tower-apartment-for-nuclear-football-letter-idUSKBN1812B5.

Jackson, Michael Gordon. "Beyond Brinkmanship: Eisenhower, Nuclear War Fighting, and Korea, 1953-1968." Presidential Studies Quarterly 35, no. 1 (March 2005): 52-75.

Johnson, Tim. "Trump’s finger soon will hover over the nuclear button. Will he be ready?" McClatchy DC. November 25, 2016. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article117054908.html.

Kaku, Michio and Daniel Axelrod. To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon's Secret War Plans. Boston: South End Press, 1999.

Kaplan, Fred. The Wizards of Armageddon. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983.

Kimball, Jeffrey P. and William Burr. Nixon's Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, and the Vietnam War. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2015.

Knipp, Delores J., et al. "The May 1967 Great Storm and Radio Disruption Event: Extreme Space Weather and Extraordinary Responses." Space Weather 14 (2016): 614–633. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/2016SW001423.

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