ABSTRACT
The public Soviet reaction to the concepts of counterforce, damage limitation, and assured destruction have just as much relevance to the discussions of nuclear strategy in recent years, much as they did at the time when then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara first enunciated them in 1962. This chapter addresses major themes of the Soviet declaratory deterrence strategy, which deal with counterforce and predominant Soviet line regarding the escalation concept. Continuing the practice from the 1950s, Soviet analysts projected their own nuclear warfighting mindset onto US doctrine in analyzing the intent and rationale behind the McNamara concepts, as well as Herman Kahn's theory of escalation. By the end of 1968, the Soviets were fast approaching a state of strategic parity vis-a-vis the United States. The attainment of nuclear parity, from the Soviet view, was one of the fundamental shifts in the overall world correlation of forces in favor of socialism and the Soviet Union.
