GBH Openvault

War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Bigger Bang for the Buck, A; Interview with David Jones, 1986 [2]

Part of War and Peace in the Nuclear Age.

06/28/1986

David Jones was a general in the U.S. Air Force, who served in the Strategic Air Command as an operations planner, then as General Curtis LeMay’s aide. He went on to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1978-1982). In this interview he discusses the Air Force’s policies and attitudes during the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s. He explains the USAF’s unease with the young civilian defense analysts, or “whiz kids,” brought into the Pentagon at that time. Of all of the changes made by Secretary of Defense McNamara, the cancellation of the B-70 was what most upset SAC and the Air Force. He vouches for the versatility and accuracy of the Air Force’s bombers, and reacts to the cancellation of various bomber programs. He describes the change in strategic doctrine away from mutually assured destruction and towards targeting Soviet military sites. He argues that to support this doctrine the Air Force required all of the missile capability it had requested, and calls the compromise of 1,000 Minuteman missiles rather than 3,000, a mistake. He believes that it was the credible threat that the U.S. could destroy substantial Soviet military capabilities, rather than the notion of mutually assured destruction, that gave weight to Kennedy’s position during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Series

War and Peace in the Nuclear Age

Program

Bigger Bang for the Buck, A

Program Number

103

Title

Interview with David Jones, 1986 [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

For the destructive power they deliver, nuclear weapons are cheap and efficient. In the 1950’s the United States begins to rely on nuclear, rather than conventional, weapons for its defense.

As nuclear policy evolved during the Eisenhower Administration, three factors combined to produce a new American reliance on nuclear weapons: pressure to control the federal budget (the “bigger bang” argument); competition as each branch of the American military adapted nuclear weapons to its mission; and Soviet bluffs that fueled American fears about a “bomber gap” and later a “missile gap.” On October 4, 1957, Sputnik, the Soviet satellite that was the first to orbit Earth, shocked Americans and delighted the Soviets. A month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 with a dog on board. Both the Soviets and the Americans knew that a booster capable of carrying a dog into space could also deliver a nuclear warhead across a continent in 30 minutes.

Duration

00:21:27

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Nuclear weapons

United States

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963

Mutual assured destruction

United States. Air Force

Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services

McNamara, Robert S., 1916-2009

Soviet Union

United States. Air Force. Strategic Air Command

Genres

Documentary

Topics

Science

History

Global Affairs

War and Conflict

Contributors

Jones, David C., 1921- (Interviewee)

Publication Information

WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Bigger Bang for the Buck, A; Interview with David Jones, 1986 [2],” 06/28/1986, GBH Archives, accessed April 19, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5FDB1545443B427888C90E7B15F3783A.

MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Bigger Bang for the Buck, A; Interview with David Jones, 1986 [2].” 06/28/1986. GBH Archives. Web. April 19, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5FDB1545443B427888C90E7B15F3783A>.

APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Bigger Bang for the Buck, A; Interview with David Jones, 1986 [2]. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5FDB1545443B427888C90E7B15F3783A