GBH Openvault
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Kenneth Adelman, 1989
Part of War and Peace in the Nuclear Age.
11/30/1989
Kenneth Adelman served as an Assistant to the US Secretary of Defense during the Ford Administration, then Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) under Ronald Reagan. In the interview he characterizes the thinking of the incoming Reagan team, including members of the Committee on the Present Danger, and describes himself as a conservative hardliner. He recounts his nomination to be Director of ACDA and the contentious confirmation process. Adelman describes some of the differences between the Reagan years and previous administrations, especially concerning the connection between arms negotiations and building up military strength. He offers the view that the Soviet Union remains a focus of evil in the world, and that while the administrations rhetoric has appropriately changed on the subject, its views have not. He explains the importance of the Intermediate Nuclear Force agreement (INF) and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), and details what he views as the mixed outcome of the Reykjavik summit and the equivocal contributions of President Reagan there. He disparages the perception that arms control will solve the main problems Washington has with Moscow. Finally, he credits Reagan with producing a truly groundbreaking arms control package and advancing the idea of strategic defense, which will remain an important concept in the future.
License Clip
- Series
- War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Program
- Missile Experimental
- Program Number
111
- Title
Interview with Kenneth Adelman, 1989
- 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
00:25:31
- Asset Type
Raw video
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Soviet Union. Treaties, etc. United States, 1991 July 31
- Committee on the Present Danger (U.S.)
- Reagan, Ronald
- Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
- Strategic Defense Initiative
- Summit meetings
- Arms control
- United States. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
- Gorbachev, Mikhail
- Soviet Union
- Presidents -- United States Election -- 1980
- United States
- Cold War
- Soviet Union. Treaties, etc. United States, 1987 Dec. 8
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- Science
- History
- War and Conflict
- Global Affairs
- Contributors
- Adelman, Kenneth L. (Kenneth Lee), 1946- (Interviewee)
- Publication Information
- WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Kenneth Adelman, 1989,” 11/30/1989, GBH Archives, accessed December 3, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_6C4E2DA442BA45D0BDE00362D7C68640.
- MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Kenneth Adelman, 1989.” 11/30/1989. GBH Archives. Web. December 3, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_6C4E2DA442BA45D0BDE00362D7C68640>.
- APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Missile Experimental; Interview with Kenneth Adelman, 1989. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_6C4E2DA442BA45D0BDE00362D7C68640