ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the posture statements of the secretary of defense and statements of the president and secretary of state, trying to reduce what is really a very complicated set of goals and objectives to four basic purposes. First of all and obviously most importantly, contributors maintain nuclear forces to prevent any military attack on the United States or any attempt to coerce the United States by threatening such an attack. Secondly, contributors maintain nuclear forces to defeat any military attack on the United States. Thirdly, the contributors maintain a nuclear force posture to prevent, or if necessary to defeat, a nuclear or conventional attack on their allies. The fourth and final objective of maintaining nuclear forces is to limit nuclear proliferation. The chapter talks about the doctrines that have been established to achieve these purposes and how the Strategic Defensive Initiative might impact on these doctrines.
