Date

Jul 17, 1980

Description

In the wake of the NORAD false alerts, some White House officials, including presidential aide Stuart Eizenstat, became interested in the possibility of a study group on accidental nuclear war. Believing otherwise, William Odom noted that the Defense Department had prepared a “large study,” which the President had seen and thought that a White House study would invite “political trouble” for the White House and open up a “Pandora’s Box.”

The Pentagon study that Odom mentioned has not surfaced, but concern about the possibility of accidental nuclear war persisted and eventually spurred the famous report that Bruce Blair prepared for the Office of Technology Assessment in the mid-1980s and which the Defense Department confiscated.[8] Hopefully, the FRUS editors will be able to retrieve the Blair report for a future volume on national security policy.

Source

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume IV, National Security Policy (FRUS Document 204)

Document published in following posting(s):

New State Department History Details Nuclear Targeting and Continuity of Government, 1977-1980

Apr 17, 2024

Memorandum From the Military Assistant to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Odom) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Aaron), “Meeting with Eizenstat on WH Study of Accidental Nuclear War,” 17 July 1980, Secret