New York is a world of fanciful invention of people aching to be more important so bear this in mind.
A fellow this evening claimed to have been present at the session when the US and the Soviets agreed to detarget one another, at Bolling AFB, thus closing down the Doomsday Scenario two generations lived with, through various administrations of the US and the Soviets. What was interesting about this story was the behavior of the US and Soviet military officers who had control of the weaponry which could determine who lived and who died for some 50 years, and not the transient officials who headed governments. According to the person telling the story, the USAF officer heading the US's MAD program told him the day of detargeting was the happiest of his life. The Soviet colonel general who came to the US to arrange detargeting was found, again according to this eyewitness, watching the I Love Lucy Show and laughing his ass off. Boots off, wearing mismatched socks, mouth filled with golden teeth. The Soviet colonel general was also said to be relieved that the standoff was over at long last. And that it was now time to construct retirement facilities for no longer needed MAD officers. Is there any way this event's particular circumstances can be verified? That detargeting occurred is known, but what of the main officers' thoughts about no longer being ready to unleash the dreaded armaments year after year, and their relief at the passing of the nearly unbearable responsibility? This is well beyond what the physicists and engineers of the weaponry have disclosed of their feelings. The handover of the weapons to officers in the field, though supposedly restrained by a battery of controls, does raise a question of what it was like to be in command of the weapons, to remain ready to launch them even if nations' leaders could not order an attack. Do physicists and behavioral scientists address the effect of commanding horrific weaponry -- not that of the launch officers in control of the keys, but that of the officers who must decide to issue the orders of launch when there is no higher authority to say do it now? The person who told this story said the US officers in command are southerners, mean sons of bitches who would have no reservation in launching mass killing weaponry. This didn't ring true: why southerners and not any other American? And what of the claim that the officer in command claiming detargeting was the happiest day of his life? Why would launching not be that if he was a mean son of bitch?
