Transcript of interview with Vice Admiral Joe Williams, 1996
- COLD WAR 27/78
- Item
- 1996 Aug 31
Typescript transcript of interview with V Adm Joe Williams, Jr, US Navy, 1961-[1980], relating to the US development of the Lockheed UGM-27 Polaris A1 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM), [1955-1960]; the role of US Navy fleet ballistic missile submarines, 1961-[1980]; the difficulty for the USSR in locating and destroying a US Navy fleet ballistic missile submarines, 1961-[1980]; Williams' tours of duty on US Polaris submarines, 1961-[1969]; the targets in the USSR for US SLBMs, 1961-[1980]; competition between the US Navy and the Strategic Air Command (SAC), USAF, for control of nuclear delivery systems, 1961-1968; Williams' opinion of the USSR, 1961-[1969]; Soviet attempts to locate and track US Navy fleet ballistic missile submarines, 1961-[1980]; the opinion in the US Navy of Robert Strange McNamara, US Secretary of Defense, and of his 'whiz kids' defence advisors brought into the US Pentagon mostly from the RAND Corporation and the Harvard Business School, 1961-1968; the US strategic doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD), 1967; the impossibility of one crew member launching a US SLBM, 1961-[1980]. 25pp