Since watching PBS's documentary of the same name, adapted from Command and Control, written by Eric Schlosser, I have been fascinated by the Cold War, and its persisting idea of deterrence, which still affects nuclear weapons policy among superpowers today.
The intriguing philosophy and its risks are starkly illustrated by a story from Damascus, Arkansas in September 1980.
Two U.S. Air Force men, part of a propellant transfer system (PTS) crew, were working on a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile. They were huddled near the side of the missile, around 30 feet (10 m) below ground level. They struggled to loosen a dust cap off a threaded hose connection where a toxic liquid oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, was loaded into and out of the missile. The giant ratchet and socket wrench came apart, and the huge 8 lb. (3.6 kg) socket fell between the side of the missile and the steel work platform upon which the men were standing.
The socket fell some 70 feet (21 m), where it impacted a heavy ring that supported the missile as it sat in the silo, waiting to launch. It bounced and flew into the side of the missile near the bottom, piercing a hole in the tank that held another dangerous liquid fuel, a mixture of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine.
This flammable, toxic fuel began spraying from the missile, forming a cloud inside the enclosed silo.
This scenario had never been considered by the designers or operators of the missile system. Several hours of frantic attempts to control the missile ended with a tremendous explosion as the missile buckled and slowly collapsed on itself. Fuel vapors had been ignited by sparks from inside the motor of a ventilation fan that was turned on by order of Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters. One man was killed, and several injured.
Many feel the men at the missile complex were thrown to the wolves by their superiors, who inhumanely used them as pawns in the war games that kept the United States and the Soviet Union in an uneasy balance of power that ensured the world would not see the horrors of a full nuclear exchange.
This incident was only one of several so-called "broken arrows," major accidents involving nuclear weapons. We've come close to disasters, but thankfully the safety mechanisms designed into the bombs have prevented a nuclear detonation in every instance.
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The existence of missile systems such as Titan II have an ironic purpose: merely by existing, they ensure that they will never have to be used. If they are ever used successfully in war, it would mean they had failed in their purpose of peace.
Titan II's role was to serve as a deterrent to prevent attacks against the United States. Even if Russia destroyed all our major cities, wiping away our civilization in a preemptive first strike, America could still "kill them back," by action of fortified underground missile systems that could return an overwhelming retaliatory strike, even if there were no Americans left above ground. It seems ridiculous, but it has worked. The doctrine is called "mutually assured destruction."
It aims to prevent war by keeping devastating weapons always ready, making sure enemies all know the consequences of an attack. It means a full-scale nuclear war cannot be won.
There would only be losers.
The beauty and awe of a test launch belies the sinister reasons behind creating and maintaining such powerful machines.
But, as predicted, swords of war have been beaten into plowshares of peaceful productivity, as Titan II boosters were used by NASA in the 1960s to launch Gemini, and other exploratory space missions since then. (Isaiah 2: 4)
Is a thermonuclear fusion reaction, the actual power of a star, the greatest power to be brought to the earth? No.
"This, then, is the doctrine of the priesthood, than which there neither is nor can be anything greater. This is the power we can gain through faith and righteousness.
Truly, there is power in the priesthood—power to do all things!
If the world itself was created by the power of the priesthood, surely that same power can move mountains and control the elements.
If one-third of the hosts of heaven were cast down to earth by the power of the priesthood, surely that same power can put at defiance the armies of nations or stay the fall of atomic bombs.
If all men shall be raised from mortality to immortality by the power of the priesthood, surely that same power can cure the diseased and the dying and raise the dead.
Truly there is power in the priesthood—a power which we seek to acquire to use, a power which we devoutly pray may rest upon us and upon our posterity forever."
From The Doctrine of the Priesthood, by Bruce R. McConkie
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See also:
The Twelve, by Boyd K. Packer
The Power of Scripture, by Richard G. Scott