Call It Suigenocide

BACK in 1969 it was proposed to Henry Kissinger that the United States seek a ban on MIRV technology in the first round of strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union. MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle. MIRV is to missiles what Samuel Colt’s six-shot revolver was to the cap-and-ball horse pistol. With a six-shooter, one man may shoot many men. With MIRV, one missile may shoot many missiles. This may seem a small and obvious improvement, but it had a large effect. MIRV destroyed the only genuine nuclear strategy we had – the idea of the perpetual standoff, the ”mutual assured destruction” that made war unthinkable. MIRV was ”destabilizing.” Accurate MIRV’s reintroduced the idea of war – something you could win by being first with the most.