One of the more important studies commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was the STRAT-X (X for experimental) report, completed by the Institute for Defense Analyses in August 1967 as a twenty-volume report. Concerned about the impact of Soviet anti-ballistic missile systems and the danger of growing Soviet ICBM forces, McNamara wanted a study of “U.S. alternatives to counter the possible ABM deployment and the Soviet potential for reducing the U.S. assured-destruction force effectiveness during the 1970s.” (By “assured-destruction force,” he meant a retaliatory, second-strike, capability to destroy about one-third of the Soviet Union’s population and industrial capability.) The National Security Archive has a long-standing FOIA appeal at the Defense Department for the STRAT-X summary, volume 1, which was released in a massively excised version in 2003. Except for a few volumes available at the Defense Department FOIA electronic reading room, most of the report remains classified. (more…)
