GBH Openvault
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Fred Ikle, 1987 [2]
Part of War and Peace in the Nuclear Age.
11/24/1987
Fred Ikle was Undersecretary for Defense for Policy during the Reagan Administration, and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1973-1977. In this interview he continues to discuss the nuclear policy of the Reagan Administration. He describes the ideology the new administration brought to Washington, the Republicans control of the federal government, the militarys reaction to the new president, and other topics. He compares the military goals of President Carter and President Reagan, and argues that the build-up of U.S. military forces, which began in the last year of Carter, allowed for successful arms control negotiations. He describes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and its evolution from the time it was announced in 1983 to its current state, as a combined defensive and offensive strategy.
License Clip
- Series
- War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Program
- Missile Experimental
- Program Number
111
- Title
Interview with Fred Ikle, 1987 [2]
- 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
00:23:15
- Asset Type
Raw video
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Reagan, Ronald
- Allen, Richard V.
- Strategic Defense Initiative
- Civil defense
- Soviet Union
- Graham, Daniel Orrin, 1925-
- Nuclear weapons
- Nuclear arms control
- Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
- United States
- Political campaigns
- United States. Congress
- Teller, Edward, 1908-2003
- Brown, Harold, 1927-
- Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- War and Conflict
- History
- Science
- Global Affairs
- Contributors
- Ikle, Fred Charles (Interviewee)
- Publication Information
- WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Fred Ikle, 1987 [2],” 11/24/1987, GBH Archives, accessed April 25, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C1A9B20A0E8841C8A2F0B2B14DC89790.
- MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Fred Ikle, 1987 [2].” 11/24/1987. GBH Archives. Web. April 25, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C1A9B20A0E8841C8A2F0B2B14DC89790>.
- APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Fred Ikle, 1987 [2]. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C1A9B20A0E8841C8A2F0B2B14DC89790