"What an Insane Road We Are Both Following": Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, June 1967
Neither Superpower Wanted to be in an “Inferior” Position and Both Sought Strategic Advantage
Edited by William Burr
Washington, D.C., December 10, 2021 – As the United States engages in strategic stability talks with Russia and seeks similar talks with China, it is worth looking back to the origins of the concept and its early usage in the late 1950s and 1960s. Today, the National Security Archive posts selected White House and other high-level records that speak to “strategic stability’s” past – and continuing – impact on evaluations of new strategic systems and the risks of escalating the nuclear arms race.
The posting features documents, published for the first time by the National Security Archive, showing the earliest known usage of the term “strategic stability” in 1958. Others published here first concern a notable December 1967 meeting in Moscow, when officially-connected U.S. and Soviet academics including Henry Kissinger and Paul Doty met to discuss arms control. The U.S. participants shared their thinking about new strategic systems, fielded by both sides, that raised concerns about stability and first-strike risks.
One of the main voices in the debates over strategic stability in the 1960s was Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. During the Glassboro summit, McNamara had an exchange with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin about anti-ballistic missiles and the arms race in which he exclaimed: “What an insane road we are both following.” Kosygin in reply complimented McNamara: “how well you speak.”
As contemporary leaders of the United States, Russia, and China face pressures of their own to ratchet up nuclear weapons levels, the issues and lessons revealed in internal discussions decades ago appear all the more salient.
H-Diplo Publication Schedule, 13 to 25 December
The H-Diplo publication schedule for the period 13 to 25 December is as follows:
Week of 13 December:
1. H-Diplo Roundtable Review of Victor McFarland. Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020.
Introduction by Christopher Dietrich, Fordham University
Reviewers:
Gregory Brew, Texas National Security Review
Nathan J. Citino, Rice University
Doug Little, Clark University
2. H-Diplo Essay Series on Learning the Scholar’s Craft: Reflections of Historians and International Relations Scholars.
Learning the Scholar’s Craft
Essay by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Australian Catholic University (Melbourne), University of Sydney, and Professor Emerita, University of Chicago.
3. H-Diplo Article Review of Jeremy Friedman. “The Enemy of My Enemy: The Soviet Union, East Germany, and the Iranian Tudeh Party’s Support for Ayatollah Khomeini,” Journal of Cold War Studies 20:2 (2018): 3-37.
Reviewed by Dmitry Asinovskiy, University of Amsterdam
4. H-Diplo Review of Abraham Denmark. U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century: Empowering Allies and Partners. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020.
Reviewed by Iain Henry, Australian National University
5. H-Diplo Article Review of Sheng Peng, “A ‘Gentleman’s Understanding’: British, French, and German Dual-Use Technology Transfer to China and America’s Dilemma during the Carter Administration, 1977-1981.” Diplomacy & Statecraft 32:1 (2021): 168-188.
Reviewed by Jingdong Yuan, University of Sydney & Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
6. H-Diplo Review of Tanvi Madan, Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped U.S.-India Relations During the Cold War (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2020).
Reviewed by Jayita Sarkar, Boston University
7. H-Diplo/ISSF Roundtable Review of Paul Avey. Tempting Fate: Why Nonnuclear States Confront Nuclear Opponents. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019.
Introduction by Lawrence Rubin, Georgia Institute of Technology
Reviewers:
Rebecca Davis Gibbons, University of Southern Maine
Kelly M. Greenhill, 2020-21 Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, SOAS
Jeffrey Kaplow, William & Mary
Abigail S. Post, Anderson University
Week of 20 December:
1. H-Diplo Roundtable Review of Thea Riofrancos. Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Durham: Duke University Press, 2020).
Introduction by Murad Idris, University of Michigan
Reviewed by
Alyssa Battistoni, Harvard University
Maxwell A. Cameron, The University of British Columbia
Lida Maxwell, Boston University
2. H-Diplo Essay Series on Learning the Scholar’s Craft: Reflections of Historians and International Relations Scholars.
Learning the Scholar’s Craft: Crossing into a Discipline
Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Ohio State University
3. H-Diplo Article Review of John Haynes and Harvey Klehr. “Framing William Albertson: The FBI”s ‘Solo’ Operation and the Cold War,” Journal of Cold War Studies. 22: 3 (Summer 2020): 63-85.
Reviewed by Jason Roberts, Quincy College
4. H-Diplo Article Review of Ingo Trauschweizer. “Berlin Commander. Maxwell Taylor and the Cold War’s frontlines, 1949-1951.” Cold War History 21:1 (2019)37-53.
Reviewed by Armin Grünbacher, University of Birmingham
5. H-Diplo Article Review of Ellen Gray, “Blind Loyalty? The Menzies Mission to Cairo during the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 32:1 (June 2021): 86-113.
Reviewed by Robert Bowker, Australian Ambassador to Egypt 2005-2008; Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
With best regards,
Diane Labrosse, H-Diplo managing editor
