President Muffley: But this is absolute madness, ambassador. Why should you build such a thing?

Ambassador Desadeski: There are those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the Arms Race, the Space Race, and the Peace Race. And at the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a Doomsday Gap.

Muffley: This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that.

Desadeski: Our source was the New York Times.

Muffley: Dr. Strangelove, do we have anything like that in the works?

Dr. Strangelove: Under the authority granted me as director of weapons research and development, I commissioned last year a study of this project by the Bland Corporation. Based on the findings of the report, my conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent, for reasons which, at this moment, must be all too obvious.

Muffley: Then you mean it is possible for them to have built such a thing?

Strangelove: Mr. President, the technology required is easily within the means of even the smallest nuclear power. It requires only the will to do so.

Muffley: But, how is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically, and at the same time impossible to untrigger?

Strangelove: Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision making process which rules out human meddling, the doomsday machine is terrifying. It’s simple to understand. And completely credible, and convincing.

General Turgidson: Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.

Desadeski’s fear of a “Doomsday Gap”, meant as a parody of contemporary concern about a Missile Gap, is unfounded: control of the Doomsday device is pointless if the the device is designed to beyond human control.

And of course, in the event, when the Soviet Union realized it could not keep up with the the Arms Race, the Space Race, and the Peace Race, they attempted to restructure (перестройка, peristoika) the situation, an attempt the regime did not survive. The country lost its empire and disintegrated. Its fragments, with the exception of the Baltic states and the Ukraine, are petty principalities, able to threaten only each other.

I think though that the script (by Terry Southern and director Stanley Kubrick) gave a good explication of why it was necessary to create an retaliatory mechanism that feels (to the opponent) inevitable. Of course, when the balloon goes up, it hardly matters whether any of the preparations are effective.

President Muffley: But this is absolute madness, ambassador. Why should you build such a thing?

Ambassador Desadeski: There are those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the Arms Race, the Space Race, and the Peace Race. And at the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a Doomsday Gap.

Muffley: This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that.

Desadeski: Our source was the New York Times.

Muffley: Dr. Strangelove, do we have anything like that in the works?

Dr. Strangelove: Under the authority granted me as director of weapons research and development, I commissioned last year a study of this project by the Bland Corporation. Based on the findings of the report, my conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent, for reasons which, at this moment, must be all too obvious.

Muffley: Then you mean it is possible for them to have built such a thing?

Strangelove: Mr. President, the technology required is easily within the means of even the smallest nuclear power. It requires only the will to do so.

Muffley: But, how is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically, and at the same time impossible to untrigger?

Strangelove: Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision making process which rules out human meddling, the doomsday machine is terrifying. It’s simple to understand. And completely credible, and convincing.

General Turgidson: Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.

Desadeski’s fear of a “Doomsday Gap”, meant as a parody of contemporary concern about a Missile Gap, is unfounded: control of the Doomsday device is pointless if the the device is designed to beyond human control. All that is required is that someone build one.

And of course, in the event, when the Soviet Union realized it could not keep up with the the Arms Race, the Space Race, and the Peace Race, they attempted to restructure (перестройка, peristoika) the situation, an attempt the regime did not survive. The country lost its empire and promptly disintegrated. Its fragments, with the exception of the Baltic states and the Ukraine, are today petty principalities, able to threaten only each other.

I think, though, that the script (by Terry Southern and director Stanley Kubrick) gave a good explication of why it was necessary to create an retaliatory mechanism that feels (to the opponent) inevitable. Of course, once the balloon goes up, it hardly matters (militarily) whether any of the preparations are effective.