When asked what the JSTPS actually did, the officer explained that they take all the weapons that are assigned to SAC and aim them at all the targets on the list. The code was unlocked. It turned out that the war plan was based on supply, not demand — on how many weapons SAC happened to have , not on how many were needed.

But analysts in the Navy’s official think tank came up with a new strategic idea: finite deterrence . All the U.S. needed, they argued, was enough nuclear weapons to destroy the 100 largest cities in the Soviet Union; this could be done with a mere 640 mis -siles in 40 submarines

One part of the nuclear war plan called for destroying the Soviet tank army. As a result, JSTPS aimed a lot of weapons at not only the tanks themselves, but also the factory that produced the tanks, the steel mill that supplied the factory, the ore-processing facility that supplied the steel mill, and the mine that furnished the ore.