WOULD YOU CARE TO MAKE A GUESS?
All right---I think it was an ad hoc committee, at the cabinet level, or near it. It
had to be. I suppose they gave the organizational job--making arrangements,
paying the bills, and so on---to somebody from the State or Defense of the
National Security Council. Only one of us was in touch with Washington, and I
wasn't the one. But I can tell you that very, very few people knew about
us....For instance, there was the Ackley Committee. It was set up after we were.
If you read their report---the same old tune---economic reconversion, turning
sword plants into plowshare factories...I think you'll wonder if even the
President knew about our Group. The Ackley Committee certainly didn't.
IS THAT POSSIBLE, REALLY? I MEAN THAT NOT EVEN THE PRESIDENT KNEW OF YOUR COMMISSION?
Well, I don't think there's anything odd about the government attacking a
problem at two different levels. Or even about two or three [government]
agencies working at cross-purposes. It happens all the time. Perhaps the
President did know. And I don't mean to denigrate the Ackley Committee, but it
was exactly that narrowness of approach that we were supposed to get away
from.......
You have to remember -- you've read the Report---that what they wanted from
us was a different kind of thinking. It was a matter of approach. Herman Kahn
calls is "Byzantine"--no agonizing over cultural and religious values. No moral
posturing. It's the kind of thinking that Rand and the Hudson Institute and
I.D.A. (Institute for Defense Analysis.) brought into war planning...What they
asked up to do, and I think we did it, was to give the same kind of treatment to
the hypothetical nuclear war...We may have gone further than they expected,
but once you establish your premises and your logic you can't turn back....
Kahn's books, for example, are misunderstood, at least by laymen. They shock
people. But you see, what's important about them is not his conclusions, or his
opinions. It's the method. He has done more than anyone else I can think of to
get the general public accustomed to the style of modern military
thinking.....Today it's possible for a columnist to write about "counterforce
strategy" and "minimum deterrence" and "credible first strike capability" with-
out having to explain every other word. He can write about war and strategy
without getting bogged down in questions or morality.......
All right---I think it was an ad hoc committee, at the cabinet level, or near it. It
had to be. I suppose they gave the organizational job--making arrangements,
paying the bills, and so on---to somebody from the State or Defense of the
National Security Council. Only one of us was in touch with Washington, and I
wasn't the one. But I can tell you that very, very few people knew about
us....For instance, there was the Ackley Committee. It was set up after we were.
If you read their report---the same old tune---economic reconversion, turning
sword plants into plowshare factories...I think you'll wonder if even the
President knew about our Group. The Ackley Committee certainly didn't.
IS THAT POSSIBLE, REALLY? I MEAN THAT NOT EVEN THE PRESIDENT KNEW OF YOUR COMMISSION?
Well, I don't think there's anything odd about the government attacking a
problem at two different levels. Or even about two or three [government]
agencies working at cross-purposes. It happens all the time. Perhaps the
President did know. And I don't mean to denigrate the Ackley Committee, but it
was exactly that narrowness of approach that we were supposed to get away
from.......
You have to remember -- you've read the Report---that what they wanted from
us was a different kind of thinking. It was a matter of approach. Herman Kahn
calls is "Byzantine"--no agonizing over cultural and religious values. No moral
posturing. It's the kind of thinking that Rand and the Hudson Institute and
I.D.A. (Institute for Defense Analysis.) brought into war planning...What they
asked up to do, and I think we did it, was to give the same kind of treatment to
the hypothetical nuclear war...We may have gone further than they expected,
but once you establish your premises and your logic you can't turn back....
Kahn's books, for example, are misunderstood, at least by laymen. They shock
people. But you see, what's important about them is not his conclusions, or his
opinions. It's the method. He has done more than anyone else I can think of to
get the general public accustomed to the style of modern military
thinking.....Today it's possible for a columnist to write about "counterforce
strategy" and "minimum deterrence" and "credible first strike capability" with-
out having to explain every other word. He can write about war and strategy
without getting bogged down in questions or morality.......
