Defense: Dangerous Document

Defense Expert Bruce Blair's study of the hypersensitive command, control and communications system that would be involved in a nuclear war was a success. Too much of a success. As soon as Pentagon officials read the report, which had been commissioned by Congress's Office of Technology Assessment, they upgraded it to a supersecret clearance level known as siop-esi (Single Integrated Operation Plan--Extremely Sensitive Information). Only the President and a few top Defense officials are now permitted to see the paper. The classification is so restricted that even Author Blair, who is cleared for top-secret material, is not permitted to read what he wrote.

The study examined "nuclear decapitation," or the possibility that a surprise Soviet missile strike could wipe out the U.S. strategic-command system and prevent the President from ordering a retaliatory attack. Said one senior U.S. military officer: "This is the single most dangerous document I have ever seen." The Pentagon dispatched an official with a top security clearance to round up copies and destroy them in a high-security incinerator in the offices of the Joint Chiefs.