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I. Where we are:
Requirements for MAD
1) weapons must target cities.
2) Weapons must be invulnerable

• What’s wrong with MAD?
  1. It’s not credible
  2. It does not assure national security
  3. It’s not flexible
  4. It’s immora

II. The escape from MAD: Coffin—The Hawk’s Position

A. COFFIN was not new
1. NSC 68
2. Robert McNamara 1962
3. July 25, 1980, Presidential Directive 59
4. 1997 PDD

Assumptions
Conditions
counterforce targeting. Weapons, not cities are targeted.
weapons must be accurate, fast, ready and reliable.
The Capabilities
Arguments Against COFFIN
Acceptable Levels of Damage?
Would a First Strike Work?

III. Vietnam
A. Firsts
B. Effects
C. Why a Dispute: The First Indochina War 1945-1954
1. Events
2. Analysis

------Monoliths and Dominos
------Between anticolonialism and anticommunism
------NSC 68
------Why no intervention?
------Regime Change: Nation-building
------The Failure of Nation-Building