Nixon's Secret Nuclear Alert: Vietnam War Diplomacy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test, October 1969

Abstract

During October 1969 President Nixon directed the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to order the US high command to undertake military measures that would convey to Moscow the increased readiness of US nuclear forces but would not be 'threatening in themselves'. The JCS Readiness Test, as the exercise was officially known, was one of Nixon's more mysterious and secret decisions. This article tracks the twists and turns of Nixon's Vietnam strategy that led to the readiness test and details the Pentagon's subsequent though unenthusiastic efforts to carry out the president's wishes. The October 1969 nuclear alert and its accompanying 'madman' threats against Hanoi and Moscow sheds new light on Nixon's strategy of détente and the intricate connections between it, the Vietnam War, and continuing Cold War confrontation between the superpowers.