ABSTRACT
Soviet and American views differ on when and how tactical nuclear weapons would be used in a European war. The bombardment of western Europe by just these 600 ballistic missiles (or an important fraction of them) could easily kill virtually the entire urban population by ‘blast alone. In addition, if a large portion of the warheads were exploded on or near the ground, then a major fraction of the rural population could also be killed by nuclear fallout – and so could a very large number of people outside Europe. In Herbert York’s opinion, the problem with deterrence is that if for any political or psychological or technical reason deterrence should fail, the physical, biological and social consequences would be completely out of proportion to any reasonable view of the national objectives of the USA or the USSR.
