How Low Can You Go? a Study of How the Us Strategy to Develop Low-Yield Nuclear Penetrating Weapons Affects the Nuclear Threshold

by Melvin G. Deaile

This thesis analyzes the government's new nuclear strategy with respect to the development of low-yield nuclear weapons. Additionally, this analysis relies on the feasibility, acceptability, and suitability (FAS) methodology for a thorough breakdown of the proposed course of action. Moreover, this paper examines the Truman Decision and the Cuban Missile Crisis under the same methodology to show how the FAS criterion affect threshold decisions. These historical factors, when overlaid with the FAS analysis of the 2002 NPR, show how the development of low-yield nuclear weapons affects the decision to use nuclear weapons.

88 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2012