ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the implications of the growing realisation that American nuclear superiority was a wasting asset; that a nuclear stalemate between East and West was not far away, at least in 'strategic' and thermonuclear weapons; and that an unlimited global war would therefore be a catastrophe for Western civilisation. The name 'nuclear sufficiency' was coined for a state in which each side would possess sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy all of the targets it wished to attack in the event of war. The possibility that tactical nuclear weapons could be used at sea - for example, against Chinese submarines - was certainly considered alongside other options, up to and including a comprehensive strategic attack. Throughout the debates on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation maritime strategy in 1961-1963, the possibility of nuclear war at sea continued to be rejected because of the risk of escalation.
