Insights on Nuclear Warfare Planning and Submarine Role

Nuclear war planning in the 1960s involved the integration of military arsenals to form a unified war plan, despite opposition and secrecy within the defense department. A Marine Commandant criticized a plan that would result in the deaths of noncombatants in countries not involved in the war. The role of nuclear submarines in the traditional triad of nuclear weapons (bomber-based, missile land-based, and submarine-based) was considered the most terrifying and challenging for adversaries due to their stealth and unpredictability in launching attacks, with Vice Admiral Michael Connor highlighting the extreme difficulty in detecting nuclear-powered submarines underwater.