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Declassified Histories of U.S. Nuclear War Plans Posted Online

National Security Archive: “The first comprehensive U.S. nuclear war plan, produced in 1960, was controversial within the U.S. government because top commanders and White House scientists objected to its massive destructiveness—the “high level of damage and population casualties”—according to newly declassified histories published today by the National Security Archive. The war plan also appalled Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who wanted to find ways to curb its overkill, but the first nuclear plan revised on his watch remained massively destructive.”

  • Electronic Briefing Book – New Evidence on the Origins of Overkill – First Substantive Release of Early SIOP Histories, by William Burr: “The nuclear war plan, the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), has been among the U.S. government’s most sensitive secrets. No SIOP has ever been declassified and details about the making of U.S. nuclear war plans have been hard to pry loose.”
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