War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with John Toomay, 1987
- Raw Footage
- Interview with John Toomay, 1987
- Contributing Organization
- WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/15-7659c6s42t
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- Description
- Episode Description
- Major General John Toomay was a career Air force officer involved with space systems and nuclear planning. He served on and off from World War II to 1979. In the interview he discusses vulnerability issues affecting U.S. ICBM forces in the 1960s. The Strat-X study and the concept of hard point defense, among others, are also discussed, as are targeting policies from the same time period. Gen. Toomay notes that accuracy was a major goal for some, but it was opposed by Robert McNamara and Congress, among others. Much of the interview is then taken up with questions about basing modes. Options he and his colleagues investigated included the pool, vertical silo, and racetrack systems. He discusses the trade-offs between hardening and mobility, observing that the latter creates added burdens when very large missiles and their associated hardware come into play. He explains why he preferred the vertical silo but the Carter administration ultimately chose the racetrack mode. He also discusses some of the issues affecting the idea of basing missiles in Utah, then goes on to talk about the aims of the MX, and comments that he believes in the concept of limited nuclear war, at least to the extent that it offers options other than surrendering or destroying the USSR. He touches on ICBM modernization and other topics such as his opposition to the Rail Garrison system. He then closes with a discussion of lessons from the period and assessments of different systems.
- Date
- 1987-12-09
- Date
- 1987-12-09
- Asset type
- Raw Footage
- Subjects
- Deterrence (Strategy); Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles; Physicists; Midgetman Missile; United States; United States. Air Force. Ballistic Missile Office; Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994; Brown, Harold, 1927-; McNamara, Robert S., 1916-2009; Smith, Larry; Shultz, George Pratt, 1920-; Allen, Lew, 1925-2010; Drell, Sidney D. (Sidney David), 1926-; Garwin, Richard L.; Burke, Kelly H., 1929-; Carter, Jimmy, 1924-; Reagan, Ronald; Perry, William James, 1927-; Zieberg, Seymour; United States. Air Force; United States. Army; United States. Dept. of Defense; United States. Congress; Mormon Church; United States. President's Commission on Strategic Forces; Schlesinger, James R.; Targeting (Nuclear strategy); MX (Weapons system); Minuteman (Missile); Intercontinental ballistic missiles; nuclear weapons; Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II; Soviet Union
- Rights
- Rights Note:,Rights:,Rights Credit:WGBH Educational Foundation,Rights Type:All,Rights Coverage:,Rights Holder:WGBH Educational Foundation
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:00:00
- Credits
-
-
Publisher: WGBH Educational Foundation
Writer: Toomay, J. C. (John C.), 1922-
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
WGBH
Identifier: 1ddf03deef64bb14d341eb0eb363baec3a0cf6f8 (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: video/quicktime
Color: Color
Duration: 00:00:00
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- Citations
- Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with John Toomay, 1987,” 1987-12-09, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 18, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-7659c6s42t.
- MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with John Toomay, 1987.” 1987-12-09. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 18, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-7659c6s42t>.
- APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with John Toomay, 1987. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-7659c6s42t