80 Are the Androids Dreaming Yet? war. It was assumed this inevitable progression deterred the aggression in the first place, and the threat of mutually assured destruction kept the world peaceful. Giving up this tenet of defense strategy was something the American military just could not contemplate. Many people did not think it a rational defense strategy; it seemed appropriate the acronym for mutually assured destruction is MAD, but this was the status quo. We now know our worry over Russian superiority was groundless. The West’s technological advantage, founded on the invention of computing and sophisticated materials technology, gave us a huge advantage. In the only battle to be fought in the 20" century between Russian and Western tanks, during the first Iraq war, most of the Russian tanks were destroyed with no losses to American tanks. We know this now, but we are talking of a time when paranoia over the Soviet advantage was the common view. There is speculation that Reagan had muddled intercontinental ballistic missiles with all nuclear weapons. I do not think this is true. Reagan was a man of vision, quite comfortable with using his folksy way to convey sincere belief, and I think abolishing all nuclear weapons was in his mind. It would have been a breathtaking moment. In the end a rather feeble communiqué was put together and the talks declared a technical failure. But, both leaders had seen eye-to-eye; both were prepared to make major concessions and both wanted an end to the old strategy of mutually assured destruction. Wiping each other out was no longer considered a successful outcome! The meeting, and é AR fe Fi it a GG TT ew 1 at face ft pee i il ia: ' —= a b. SE H6fdi House in Reykjavik HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015770