In Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove, a crazed American general launches an unauthorised nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. The film disturbed audiences in 1963 with its portrayal of how close the world actually was to Armageddon as a result of the hair-trigger procedures necessary to provide deterrence through 'mutually assured destruction'. Nearly forty years later, a threat of perhaps even greater magnitude has materialised in Washington. In January 1999 Congress adopted an Act announcing 'the policy of the United States to deploy as soon as is technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack'. When President Clinton signed the law in July 1999, he stated: 'Next year, we will, for the first time, determine whether to deploy a limited National Missile Defense.' That decision is fast approaching.

LRB 22 June 2000 | PDF Download