ABSTRACT
Just war criteria cannot be applied in a mechanical, wooden way. The 1960s, for those who lived through that period, were heady years. People may wish to disagree with or qualify that argument, but the author point is that just war criteria are applicable even in the extreme case of apparently going against lawful authority, as with an attempt to overthrow a government. The author now wants to look at the application of just war criteria in the debate on nuclear deterrence during the period 1959-89. The paradox is that the more horrifying the scenes which were put before the public, the more the message that it could not possibly be in the interest of any state to go to war against a nuclear power was reinforced. Nevertheless, in terms of just war criteria, what counted as success was whether or not deterrence held, whether it was fundamentally stable or not.
