NSC 162/2

NSC 162/2

The United States National Security Council document NSC 162/2 of 30 October 1953 defined Cold War policy during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration – the New Look national security policy. NSC 162/2 stated that the United States needs to maintain "a strong military posture, with emphasis on the capability of inflicting massive retaliatory damage by offensive striking power", and that the United States "will consider nuclear weapons as available for use as other munitions."

His statement was generally interpreted to mean that, if the Soviet Union or Communist China were to attack any country of the 'Free World', the United States would strike back with nuclear weapons, but not necessarily in the theatre of war, but possibly in the Russian or Chinese heartlands. Such interpretations were subsequently strengthened, for example in an article by Vice President Richard Nixon in "The New York Times" on 14 March, 1954: "Rather than let the Communists nibble us to death all over the world in little wars, we would rely in the future primarily on our massive mobile retaliatory power which we could use in our discretion against the major source of aggression at times and places that we choose."

Only in April, Dulles made an effort to weaken the rhetoric in a Foreign Affairs article: "It should not be stated in advance precisely what would be the scope of military action if new aggression occurred.... That is a matter to which the aggressor had best remain ignorant. But he can know and does know, in the light of present policies, that the choice in this respect is ours and not his."

External links

* [http://www.jan.vandercrabben.name/nsc/index.php "NSC 162/2" original document]
* [http://www.jan.vandercrabben.name/unidocs/kcl/Eisenhower_and_Nukes.pdf Essay: Why the Eisenhower administration embraced nuclear weapons (PDF)]


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