URL: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/6085
Collection Structure Firing Line broadcast records >  Episode guide >  ABM
Item Title ABM
Collection Title Firing Line broadcast records
Guest Bethe, Hans A. (Hans Albrecht) (1906-2005)
Guest Brennan, Donald G.
Host Buckley, William F., Jr. (1925-2008)
Date Created June 02, 1969
Description A second look at anti-ballistic missiles (taken up a few weeks earlier in Firing Line #147), this time with a more technical edge. Our guests-both experts who can illustrate their points concretely-engage each other on questions such as how likely is a Soviet first strike, how "hard" are our Minuteman missiles' silos, and what is the morality of different counterattack scenarios. DB: "I think I'd like to answer that with a parallel. I think it would be perhaps as difficult as it was for the Japanese to execute a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and catch the battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor. It was very hard for the Japanese to do that, and it would be very hard for the Soviets to execute a nearly completely successful attack on the strategic defensive forces." HB: "I would remind my friend Don Brennan that the Japanese lost the war." ... HB: "I am sure if we sat by our advanced radars, if we saw that a thousand missiles were coming at us, and were coming into the areas of the Minuteman in particular ... we would not wait." DB: "I'd just say I'm mildly surprised that Hans would advocate what we call a launch-on-warning posture, if I understood you right...-my Hudson Institute colleague Herman Kahn has a term ... He used to speak of a thing called a doomsday-in-a-hurry machine."
Subject(s) Antimissile missiles Defensive (Military science)
Language(s) English
Country of Origin United States
Place Recorded New York City, New York, United States
Dimensions Duration: 50 minutes
Format Text
Medium television programs
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Color color
Color color
Soundtrack sound
Soundtrack sound
Hoover ID Program 151
Record Number 80040.151
Notes Video available through special order.
Collection Guide https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88c
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