ABSTRACT
The nuclear New Look launched by the Eisenhower administration was meant to provide the means of finally defending Europe against the Red Army, while being fiscally sound. The president of the United States, the commander-in-chief of American forces in Europe, and all the military subordinates, would consider European security alone, relying exclusively on American nuclear weapons. The Pentagon used Military Committee (MC) 70 to reinforce the tactical nuclear weapons and to settle the unresolved problem of the conventional inferiority between East and West. The procedure of the “double key” governed the use of atomic warheads: in times of peace, the American forces kept the nuclear warheads in 147 principle depots and 161 other secondary stocks or in transit. MC 70 renounced the old theory which postulated that a nuclear war would not last longer than a month. The nuclearization of the European Armies has been the only concrete achievement of MC 70.
