Now that there exist weapons capable of destroying humanity, our nation’s survival depends on our ability to find answers to two questions: What challenges should be resisted by force? How can they be resisted without brining disaster to our society?
We must find a strategy which can support our diplomacy without being forced to risk our national substance on every issue. Otherwise we will increasingly face the grim alternative of total annihilation or total surrender.
This book shows how our military strength can support our political objectives without excessive risk of all-out war. It discusses the diplomacy and the strategy necessary to deter aggression and to defeat it should it come. It makes clear that we require weapons as varied as the dangers confronting us. War can be avoided only by being ready for it.
Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, though entirely Dr. Kissinger’s own book, grew out of his work over a period of eighteen months with a group of experts organized by the Council on Foreign Relations and led by Mr. Gordon Dean, former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. It deals primarily with the revolution produced by the development of nuclear weapons, and the effect which this revolution should have on our military strategy and foreign policy.
Dr. Kissinger indicates that in all significant wars of the future, nuclear weapons are likely to be employed, but he shows that if proper doctrine is followed, the consequences need not be disastrous to our survival, as is often supposed.
He then examines the implications of his new strategy for our relations with our allies and with the uncommitted countries of the world. And he analyzes the nature of the Soviet challenge in terms of ideology, diplomacy, and military policy.
This book is of vital importance and certain to inspire serious thought.