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The article reports on the nuclear strategy imposed by the administration of President John F. Kennedy prepared in the case of nuclear surprise attack from Soviet Union. The strategy was presented by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on November 11, 1961. Under the nuclear strategy, the armed forces as well as nuclear armaments are protected in a confidential place that a sneak attack could not effectively or entirely disarm it. McNamara also states the numbers of the country's military aircraft bomber, nuclear-powered submarines and ballistic missiles. The Kennedy administration also emphasize the increase in the number of combat ready army divisions rather than total reliance on nuclear weapons.

The article focuses on the author's view on the practical defense system in the U.S. The author argues that the belief that war among the great powers has become impossible, or even if war came, the enemy could not hurt the country, or an effective civil defense is not practical are unsound and dangerous. He believes that the American defense system is not cheap and it is not guaranteed, nonetheless it makes conceivable that a recognizable American society could survive a nuclear war. Furthermore, the system would add considerably to the probability that such a war would not occur. However, it does not guarantee that there will be no war.

The author reflects on the various aspects of missile defense in the U.S. He believes that a defense system will not save everybody's lives in the event of a nuclear war. He notes that the defense system will only save those targets which are not attacked. According to the author's second point, the Sentinel system is a rather better defense for missile forces than it is for cities. It is intended as a defense of cities against Chinese attack and as a partial defense of the missile force against a Soviet attack.

The article summarizes the recent arms control studies in several research centers in Europe. It aims to suggest to U.S. readers the type and the scope of the researches that were conducted in the country. Majority of the researches are of an integrated political-military nature which are carried out in independent institutes, and are not directly dependent on government action. Some of the most active groups in arms control research include the Institute for Strategic Studies in Great Britain and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik in West Germany.

To ensure a high degree of operational readiness of a complicated device or system, either continuous monitoring or periodic testing of the components that are subject to failure must be undertaken These procedures may in themselves, however, subject the device or system to further stresses that may lead to failures Furthermore, the effciency of such tests in detecting failures, their rate of making false alarms and thus subjecting the system to unnecessary repairs also determine the long-run proportion of time during which the system is ready for use when demanded This paper develops an operational-readiness model, in terms of military-type equipment, which includes uncertain test results and failures caused by testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cost per enemy `kill' is a commonly used measure for determining the relative worth of competitive components for a defense system If the defense system components are employed in such a manner that they do not affect each other, this measure of effectiveness appears to be suitable for many situations If there are interactions among the components of a defense system, however, a comparison based on cost per enemy `kill' which is not obtained from consideration of the over-all defense system can be misleading This paper presents an analysis which indicates that such misleading situations often exist To perform this analysis, a somewhat simplified mathematical model is developed to represent the actions and outcomes of an enemy attack against a defense system The mathematical model permits partial analytical treatment of moderately complicated attack-defense situations and may be useful in many types of military operations-research work [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the plan of the Americans to build a shelter construction program for their protection against nuclear attacks from other countries. It was stated that a systematically organized program of shelter construction in the outer part of the cities would be ideal for such projects. The plan is speculated to have a considerable influence on the proportion of the surviving population. This program could begin by providing shelters in areas which are probable targets of nuclear attacks.

The article reports on issues and topics related to civil defense in the U.S. A simulated nuclear attack took place on July 12, 1957. People in New York and six other northeastern states took cover for 13 minutes in response to a three-minute warning, while President Dwight D. Eisenhower flew by helicopter to a secret relocation center. To help civil defense experts estimate the probable distribution of fallout and the dose rates from ground zero, the Rand Corp. has published a "Catalogue of Fallout Patterns."