Item NUCLEAR AGE 11/76 - Interview, Feb 1986, with Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense

Typescript transcript of interview with Robert Strange McNamara, US Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968, and President of the World Bank, 1968-1981, relating to the deployment of US tactical nuclear weapons to western Europe, [1962-1964]; the adoption by the USA and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) of the strategic policy of flexible response, 1961 and 1967; the cancellation of the US Douglas Skybolt Air Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) programme and the adoption by the UK of the Lockheed UGM-27 Polaris A1 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM), 1960-1962; the development of the French nuclear weapons programme, 1952-1960; US plans for the creation of a Multilateral Force (MLF) in western Europe, [1964-1965]; the Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct 1962; the US naval blockade of Cuba, 1962; the shooting down of a Lockheed U2 high altitude photographic reconnaissance aircraft, Cuba, 1962; the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Aug 1963; the removal of US Chrysler Jupiter SM-78 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM) from Turkey, 1965; the US military involvement in Vietnam, 1961-1975; the US strategic policy of massive retaliation, 1954-1960; US development of the Lockheed UGM-96A Trident I C4 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM), [1973]-1979; US force structure, 1961-1968; the US Strategic Air Command's Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) for the use of nuclear weapons against the USSR, 1960; the development of the nuclear doctrine of counterforce, emphasising limited nuclear strikes against an enemy's armed forces and not against civilian populations, 1962; the US nuclear doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), [1962-1972]; the summit meeting between US President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin, Glassboro, New Jersey, USA, Jun 1967; the Berlin crisis and the construction of the Berlin wall, Germany, Aug 1961.