GBH Openvault
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Brent Scowcroft, 1987
Part of War and Peace in the Nuclear Age.
11/30/1987
Brent Scowcroft was the U.S. National Security Advisor for President Gerald Ford (and later President George H.W. Bush), and served as Chairman of the presidential Commission on Strategic Forces, which recommended basing MX missiles in Minuteman silos. Here, he describes the Commission as way to overcome an impasse with Congress over how to deploy a new ICBM force, a challenge made more difficult by the sheer number of proposals from various quarters, each of which was flawed in certain ways. He provides details about the Commissions goals and workings, including his interactions with Congress and the role of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He discusses concepts like survivability and window of vulnerability, the conduct of arms control, his differences with President Reagan over strategy, and his views on developments such as Reagans mistake in canceling the Multiple Protective Shelter system. He also offers his opinions on the uses of ICBMs and the Midgetman missile.
License Clip
- Series
- War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Program
- Missile Experimental
- Program Number
111
- Title
Interview with Brent Scowcroft, 1987
- Series Description
The first atomic explosion in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, changed the world forever. This series chronicles these changes and the history of a new era. It traces the development of nuclear weapons, the evolution of nuclear strategy, and the politics of a world with the power to destroy itself.
In thirteen one-hour programs that combine historic footage and recent interviews with key American, Soviet, and European participants, the nuclear age unfolds: the origin and evolution of nuclear weapons; the people of the past who have shaped the events of the present; the ideas and issues that political leaders, scientists, and the public at large must confront, and the prospects for the future. Nuclear Age highlights the profound changes in contemporary thinking imposed by the advent of nuclear weapons. Series release date: 1/1989
- Program Description
Does the United States really plan to use nuclear weapons? Or is their only purpose to deter others from using them? These questions fuel debate over the Mobile Missile known as the MX.
The MX was designed in 1975 to counter the threat of large accurate missiles being bult in the Soviet Union. General Russell Dougherty of the Strategic Air Command recalls, “We had to have some more warheads ... with more accuracy. That was the rational for ... the MX.” It faced ten years of difficult questions in Congress, withing the military and from civilians. Was the missile meant to deter a Soviet attack or to survive one? One question led to another. There was one practical question: where to put the 200,000 pound 100 foot long missiles? In 1983 Congress approved production of 100 MX Peacekeeper missiles and based the first 50 in existing Minuteman silos.
- Duration
01:12:46
- Asset Type
Raw video
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Midgetman Missile
- United States
- Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles
- Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
- Townes Commission
- Nuclear weapons
- United States. Presidents Commission on Strategic Forces
- Nuclear arms control
- Ford, Gerald R., 1913-2006
- Reagan, Ronald
- First strike (Nuclear strategy)
- United States. Congress
- Minuteman (Missile)
- Nuclear survivability
- United States. Dept. of Defense
- United States. Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Dicks, Norman D.
- Intercontinental ballistic missiles -- Mobile basing
- Strategic Defense Initiative
- Weinberger, Caspar W.
- Summit meetings--Iceland--Reykjavik
- Intercontinental ballistic missiles
- MX (Weapons system)
- Elections
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Clark, William Patrick, 1931-
- Soviet Union
- Aspin, Les
- United States. Air Force
- Multiple Protective Structures (Missile basing system)
- Deterrence (Strategy)
- McFarlane, Robert C.
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- History
- War and Conflict
- Global Affairs
- Science
- Contributors
- Scowcroft, Brent (Interviewee)
- Publication Information
- WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Brent Scowcroft, 1987,” 11/30/1987, GBH Archives, accessed April 24, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4A1D4C6E39F1404E90EB9B8ED9787014.
- MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Brent Scowcroft, 1987.” 11/30/1987. GBH Archives. Web. April 24, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4A1D4C6E39F1404E90EB9B8ED9787014>.
- APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Brent Scowcroft, 1987. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4A1D4C6E39F1404E90EB9B8ED9787014