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Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons
Introduction
During the Cold War, nuclear weapons were central to the U.S. strategy of
deterring Soviet aggression against the United States and U.S. allies. Towards this
end, the United States deployed a wide variety of systems that could carry nuclear
warheads. These included nuclear mines; artillery; short, medium, and long range
ballistic missiles; cruise missiles; and gravity bombs. The United States deployed
these weapons with its troops in the field, aboard aircraft, on surface ships, on
submarines, and in fixed, land-based launchers. The United States articulated a
complex strategy, and developed detailed operational plans, that would guide the use
of these weapons in the event of a conflict with the Soviet Union and its allies.
Most public discussions about U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons -including
discussions about perceived imbalances between the two nations' forces and
discussions about the possible use of arms control measures to reduce the risk of
nuclear war and limit or reduce the numbers of nuclear weapons -have focused on
long-range, or strategic, nuclear weapons. These include long-range land-based
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles
(SLBMs), and heavy bombers that carry cruise missiles or gravity bombs. These
were the weapons that the United States and Soviet Union deployed so that they
could threaten destruction of central military, industrial, and leadership facilities in
the other country -the weapons of global nuclear war. But both nations also
deployed thousands of nuclear weapons outside their own territories with their troops
in the field. These weapons usually had less explosive power and were deployed
with launchers that would deliver them to shorter ranges than strategic nuclear
weapons. They were intended for use by troops on the battlefield or within the
theater of battle to achieve more limited, or tactical, objectives.
These "nonstrategic" nuclear weapons did not completely escape public
discussion or arms control debates. Their profile rose in the early 1980s when U. S.
plans to deploy new cruise missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in
Europe, as a part of NATO's nuclear strategy, ignited large public protests in many
NATO nations. Their high profile returned later in the decade when the UnitedStates and Soviet Union signed the1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty and eliminated medium and intermediate range ballistic and cruise missiles.
Then, in 1991, President George Bush, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev,
each announced that they would withdraw from deployment most of their
nonstrategic nuclear weapons and eliminate many of them.
These 1991 announcements, coming in the months before the December1991
collapse of the Soviet Union, responded to growing concerns about the safety and
security of Soviet nuclear weapons at a time of growing political and economic
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Woolf, Amy F. Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons, report, September 9, 2004; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs6104/m1/4/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.