Albert Wohlstetter (born 1913, died January 10, 1997) was a major intellectual force behind efforts to avoid the spread of nuclear weapons and the need to develop nonnuclear alternatives. He and his wife Roberta Wohlstetter, an accomplished historian and intelligence expert, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan on November 7, 1985. 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States, considered the equivalent of the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ...

Career

A native of New York, Wohlstetter earned degrees from the City College of New York and Columbia University in the 1930s. During the 1940s, he worked with the War Production Board and within the private sector. Official language(s) English Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 455 km 530 km 13. ... The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as City) is a senior college of the City University of New York, in New York City. ... Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. ... // Events and trends A public speech by Benito Mussolini, founder of the Fascist movement The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ...

From 1951 to 1963, he served first as a consultant and later as a senior policy analyst for the Rand Corporation, and maintained his affiliation with Rand for years afterward. He and his wife also advised both Democratic and Republican administrations, including President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Alternate meanings: See RAND (disambiguation) The RAND Corporation is an American think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the U.S. military. ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK, or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

During his long career, Wohlstetter also taught at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s. From 1964 to 1980, he taught in the political science department of the University of Chicago where he met later protégé Paul Wolfowitz. He is often credited with influencing a number of prominent members of the neoconservative movement, including Richard Perle and Zalmay Khalilzad. The University of California, Los Angeles, popularly known as UCLA, is a public, coeducational university situated in the neighborhood of Westwood within the city of Los Angeles. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as California, Cal, UCB, UC Berkeley, The University of California, or simply Berkeley) is a public, coeducational university situated east of the San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, California, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... The University of Chicago is a private university primarily located in the Hyde Park neigborhood of Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1890, doors opened in 1892. ... Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (born December 22, 1943) is an American academic and political figure. ... Neoconservatism describes several distinct political ideologies which are considered new forms of conservatism. ... Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941 in New York City), is an American political advisor who served the Reagan administration as an assistant Secretary of Defense and served on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Views regarding mutually assured destruction

In 2003, two French journalists writing for Le Monde (Paris) summarized Wohlstetter's ideas on nuclear strategy. Wohlstetter, they said, "was at the origin of the rethinking of the traditional doctrine known as 'mutual assured destruction' (MAD, in its English acronym), which was the basis for nuclear deterrence. According to this theory, two blocs capable of inflicting upon each other irreparable damages would cause leaders to hesitate to unleash the nuclear fire. For Wohlstetter and his pupils, MAD was both immoral -- because of the destruction inflicted on civilian populations -- and ineffective: it led to the mutual neutralization of nuclear arsenals. No statesman endowed with reason, and in any case no American president, would decide on 'reciprocal suicide.' Wohlstetter proposed on the contrary a 'graduated deterrence,' i.e. the acceptance of limited wars, possibly using tactical nuclear arms, together with 'smart' precision-guided weapons capable of hitting the enemy's military apparatus. He criticized the politics of nuclear arms limitations conducted together with Moscow. It amounted, according to him, to constraining the technological creativity of the United States in order to maintain an artificial equilibrium with the USSR." Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... // SALT I SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: ▶ (help· info)) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. ...

Death

Wohlstetter died in Los Angeles in 1997 at the age of 83. Los Angeles redirects here. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...