True fans of the Dr. Strangelove movie would certainly remember this exchange between Dr. Strangelove and the Russian ambassador:
Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH?
Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
I doubt Dr. Strangelove was a required movie-watching experience for Soviet military planners, but they got the point (we should thank Stanley Kubrick for making it so well in the movie). Here is a copy of an internal Central Committee document from 1985, which discusses various ways to increase effectiveness of the Soviet strategic forces. The author, Oleg Belyakov, head of the Military Industry Department of the Central Committee, complains, among other things, that
No [adequate] attention has been paid to a proposal, extremely important from the military and political point of view, to create a fully automated retaliatory strike system that would be activated from the top command levels in a moment of a crisis
This is exactly a Doomsday Machine that he is describing. The true Strangelovian moment comes at the end of the sentence quoted above -- the author adds, in parenthesis
(with a notification to the adversary).
Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost if you keep it a secret!
The Soviet Union never built this automatic Doomsday Machine (also known as Dead Hand) -- the Perimeter communication system that is often mistaken for it is something quite different. So we will never know, had that system been built, would the Soviet leadership have waited till a Party Congress to make the announcement?
The book
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I have seen some websites that actually mention that the Russian's "dead hand" was built under the name of Perimeter. Some even claim America has a system similar: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1690757.
Was it a device to bathe the planet in fallout as the "doomsday machine" of doctor Strangelove or was it a device to launch the country's nuclear forces in the event of an attack? I have heard that building a one device to bathe the planet in fallout would be in theory possible, but not in practice. And if the perimeter is not the "dead hand" what is it?
Perimeter is just a communication system that uses rockets to transmit launch orders to individual silos in case the land lines or other communication lines are destroyed.
Sometimes, Dead hand is described as a machine that would launch the nuclear forces in the case of a decapitating strike. Other times as a machine to cause global fallout as Dr. Strangelove's machine. What did the russians intend to be the function of the "dead hand"? Launch nuclear forces or be a single device that would produce global long lasting fallout as the device of Dr. Strangelove? Since it is mentioned in a document discussing the effectiveness of strategic systems, I think it would have used the existing forces rather than another device.
Sorry for the question, just would like to know.
Well, I guess I couldn't explain the Doomsday Machine idea better that Dr. Strangelove. Get the movie - it's very good.
Let me ask a last question
I did rent the movie and it was good. I think that the russians never intended to build a "Strangelove-type fallout machine", though. The document asked to create a "fully automated retaliatory strike system" from the top levels of command that could be activated in times of crisis. That seems to be the mission of perimeter:
"This doomsday apparatus,is an amazing feat of creative engineering. It features hard radio nodes near Moscow that can use remote control to launch communications rockets, which in turn can launch virtually the entire Russian missile force without human intervention. But the Moscow-area radio nodes have grown vulnerable over the past 20 years. Kosvinsky restores Russia's confidence in its ability to carry out a retaliatory strike" http://www.cdi.org/blair/new-nukes.cfm
The "dead hand" needed an automated response, not necessarily a strangelove machine.Perimeter can cause an automatic retaliation strike. But was a big lon-lasting fallout device produced?
Fallout would be just one of the effects of a retaliatory strike, so I'm not sure if there is a useful distinction here.
As for Blair's piece, he mixes different aspects of the problem - as I understand, individual missiles could indeed be launched from their silos (or garages) without intervention of division- or regiment-level crews, but this has nothing (or very little) to do with a Dead Hand-like automatic response.
Sorry for the confusion, I should have been more specific. Perimeter does have automatic response and apparently has a "dead hand" effect since it would be used if a decapitating strike occurs and eliminates the Russian top command:
"The Soviet Union built the world's only doomsday device, known originally as the "dead hand." The Russian dead hand is designed to launch the bulk of the country's nuclear forces in the event of a decapitating strike, utilizing specially designed rockets carrying radio equipment. The device may still exist under the name Perimetr"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_device
My fallout comment was due to the fact that when you mentioned that Dr Strangelove meets reality, I thought you meant that the "dead hand" was a device like the "Strangelovian machine". The Strangelove machine was a big gigaton Cobalt-thorium bomb. The russians seem to have been interested in a retaliatory strike using their forces, rather than using a new device.
Sorry for the confusion, Pavel. At least, renting the movie was good.
Well, this is one of those examples when Wikipedia is wrong. Perimeter did not and does not have an "automatic response".
Thanks Pavel for setting me straight in this. I thought that Perimeter had an automatic response. In order for me to avoid more confusions, tell me please, is the other part right? would the "dead hand" have launched the country's nuclear forces in a retaliation strike or did they intend to build a big device as the Strangelove gigaton cobalt-thorium bomb, besides their own forces ?
I think maybe you intended to show that the russians had learned to notify the existence of an automatic response system, rather than use a big device as Dr. Strangelove when you drew a comparison.It seems to me that the russians wanted to put a machine that would automatically launched thier nuclear forces in a retaliation strike, rather than build a Strangelove gigaton cobalt bomb.
Thanks for your patience in answering this question
You are right - there was no cobalt-thorium bomb. However, the effect of a reasonably large retaliatory strike (say, 200 warheads) wouldn't have been much different.
I thank you for you answer.But, perhaps, you have not seen the movie Dr. Strangelove. The big gigaton-range cobalt-thorium device of the movie was not intended only to retaliate against an agressor, but was to be a true doomsday device since it was many gigatons in yield and configured to produce lethal fallout globally. The russian ambassador in the movie even mentions that life in earth will be extinguished within 10 months.200 warheads would have a horrible effect on the US, but would not be close to the Strangelovian machine. The Russians never intended to build this global killer fallout-device,did they?
I thought I said it already - there was no "cobalt-thorium device". One wouldn't expect the reality to follow the movie in every detail.
Thanks a lot for the answers, you have well-informed answers. I beg you to forgive my insistence, but I had been reading too much into internet rumors that the Russians had built a Szilard-type several gigatons cobalt bomb to bathe the planet in fallout as the "dead hand". A lot of false information can be found. As a final point, since you know about this things, could you edit the "doonsday device" wikipedia page and point out that the "russian dead hand" was not a many gigatons cobalt bomb but instead only a system to launch a retaliatory strike using the exising strategic forces?
Pavel, thanks for editing the wikipedia page.
It would have been great if you could have mentioned the difference between the Strangelovian machine and the idea of the "dead hand", since they were different things, but thanks anyway.
Well, it wasn't me. But thanks to whoever edited it.