ABSTRACT
The Borden-Brodie debate, and the ensuing intellectual battle between the conventionalists and the apocalyptics, affected US nuclear strategy and any plans for a nuclear doctrine. In the real and almost secret world of military strategy and its operational nuclear weapons employment policy, the conventionalist camp dominated US nuclear strategic planning and emerged as a clear winner from the nuclear debate, within the administrative sphere. The conventional view of the nuclear world gives the impression of having firmly implanted itself within both military and political structures of the government. The US government has, in its nuclear strategy, appeared to emphasize counterforce more and more as its official declaratory policy, and consequently, has shown itself to be increasingly receptive to the idea of conventional nuclear strategy. The argument can be made that all large nuclear powers would behave like the US with its attempts at extirpating itself from the possibility of thermonuclear destruction.
