ABSTRACT
The SS-6 program has been selected for analysis because of its intrinsic significance and its value for illustrative purposes. In addition to its intrinsic significance, the SS-6 program is useful as an illustrative multiple-approach case study. Given its emphasis on the import of strategic calculation in the deliberations of Soviet decision makers, a rational strategic actor approach seems particularly appropriate in examining the SS-6 program. The best extant rational actor interpretation of the SS-6 program focuses on the importance to the Soviets of its political utility, particularly in pursuit of Soviet foreign policy objectives in Berlin in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The SS-6 program is representative of those defense decisions that are likely to have a substantial unsettling effect on various organizational and personal relationships within the defense establishment. Placing rational strategic actor and pluralistic decision-making assumptions in realistic perspective in the Soviet environment requires paying heed to a middle ground the approaches tend to slight.
