Madman.

This is coolbert:

Had never heard of this one before. Thanks to the isegoria.net Internet web site and the archive as regard to  Thomas Schelling.

"The Nukes of October"

"The Nukes of October looks at Richard Nixon’s secret plan to bring peace to Vietnam"

This was Giant Lance!

American B-52 bombers carrying thermonuclear weaponry and intended to intimidate the Soviet.

"Operation Giant Lance was a secret military operation by the United States that threatened a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union during the Cold War."

"Preparations were made to send a squadron of 18 B-52s of the 92d Strategic Aerospace Wing loaded with nuclear weapons to fly toward the Soviet Union. It was hoped that this would convince the Soviets that Nixon was willing to resort to nuclear war in order to win the Vietnam War."

Aircraft fully armed for Armageddon and for a period of three days skirting the periphery of Soviet air space.

"Codenamed Giant Lance, Nixon’s plan was the culmination of  . . . Nixon’s notion that faked, finger-on-the-button rage could bring the Soviets to heel."

IN LIEU OF FURTHER PREPARATIONS FOR GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR ON THE PART OF AMERICAN MILITARY FORCES OR THE CIVILIAN POPULACE THE SOVIETS WOULD HAVE SEEN THIS AS A BLUFF OR A DEMONSTRATION OF POTENTIAL BUT NOTHING MORE THAN THAT??

My own perception even with a cursory reading is the reservations of SecDef Melvin Laird were well founded and should have been heeded. Giant Lance was not necessary.

coolbert.