Date

Mar 31, 1977

Description

Brzezinski reported that the NSC’s “investigation of the White House Emergency Procedures for short warning nuclear attack has thrown up the question of our nuclear war doctrine.” Discussing problems relating to the SIOP, NSDM 242, policy guidance for preparing Limited Nuclear Options (LNOs), “war fighting procedures,” and the “vulnerability of the National Command Authority,” he recommended asking Secretary of Defense Brown and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for an explanation of such matters as current “nuclear war doctrine” and the “procedures they envisage for actually conducting a nuclear war, limited or total, beyond the initial attack phase.” Carter approved the recommendation, and that same day Brzezinski wrote to Brown about several requests, one of which was for a “brief statement of the procedures for actually conducting a nuclear war, limited or total, beyond the initial phase.” That would include information on “command procedures for the conduct of such a war, including such operational aspects as the location and procedures for effective exercise of control.”

Source

JCPL, Zbigniew Brzezinski Material –Subject Files, box 47, Nuclear War Doctrine - Limited Nuclear Options (LNO) and Regional Nuclear Options (RNO), 3/77-1/80

Document published in following posting(s):

Ivory Item: Carter First U.S. President to Participate in Nuclear Drill

May 31, 2024

Zbigniew Brzezinski to the President, “Our Nuclear War Doctrine: Limited Nuclear Options and Regional Nuclear Options,” 31 March 1977, Top Secret, attached to William Odom memo to Brzezinski, 24 March 1977, Top Secret [Document 9 in FRUS national security policy compilation]