When Donald Trump recently demanded that government briefers explain to him why he shouldn’t be able to use nuclear weapons, if he wants, if he is President, much of the widespread reaction focused on nuclear holocaust and Mutually Assured Destruction. Many had visions of Trump lobbing ICBM’s and city-buster H-bombs, as extensions of Diplomacy by other means. For example, see national security expert, John Noonan’s, epic Tweet takedown of Mr. Trump’s nuclear weapons remarks from the point of view of someone who once served as a key men in a nuclear ICBM missile silo.
I had a different and, perhaps scarier nuclear weapons experience than Mr. Noonan’s, during my own military service. I saw a different nuclear battlefield than he.
Have you ever commanded a nuclear weapons system? During the Cold War, I commanded a United States Navy ASROC launcher, certified for and equipped with rocket thrown nuclear depth charges, carrying 10-kiloton, W44 warheads, meant for use against enemy submarines. We were deployed overseas for many months, once to the Soviet Union itself, the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. Much of that story is previously told here.
The scary part of my experience is that it taught me that tactical nuclear weapons are easier for the chain-of-command to accept using, more widely dispersed in larger numbers, often less secure because located closer to the adversary, less secure because such a large number of personnel, in so many different services and settings, must care for and handle the nukes, and easier for the military and a President, to defend against public opinion if used or lost. It is much easier to imagine, and fear, Donald Trump authorizing the use of battlefield weapons than him letting fly with ICBM’s. It is also much easier to imagine Donald Trump ordering the deployment of battlefield nukes in settings where they could be fumbled into the hands of America’s adversaries. A lesson here is that Americans must unite, to deny Donald Trump access to anything more dangerous than his own checkbook. The risks of failure in that endeavor are grave and lie everywhere.
PS
What a trip down memory lane it was to find the training film on ASROC from back in the day. For anyone peculiar enough to watch the YouTube training film video I posted below the fold, my job, as depicted there, was that of the guy in charge of the special firing plugs and the nuclear warhead power supplies. I was also the guy who said “Shoot!”, but for a nuclear payload that also required the Captain to turn his key on the Bridge, or, more likely in CIC. All of the systems and areas of the ship shown were under control of sailors I commanded.