For most of the cold war the foreign policy establishment lived by the doctrine of “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD): If both the coerced union of American states, and the coerced union of Soviet states had the ability to completely destroy each other with nukes, then neither side would be so foolish as to try it. Each would be assured of its own destruction. Thus, the arms build-up was said to have successfully deterred the mighty Soviets. Today, the U.S., Israel, and Europe still have enough nuclear firepower to vaporize a country the size of say, Iran, in minutes. But in … Continue reading Whatever Happened to MAD?