On October 21, 1981 much of the world outside Washington was dismayed by two statements, from leading U.S. policy-makers, which revealed that in inner government circles the prospect of nuclear war with Russia is looked on with increasing equanimity. The first came from Major General Robert Schweitzer, chief military adviser for the National Security Coun- cil, who told a gathering of the Association of the U.S. Army that we were witnessing a “drift towa...