Lee Butler

About the author: Lee Butler, now a retired general, was commander in chief of the U.S. Strategic Command at Offnut Air Base in Nebraska. He was responsible for all U.S. Air Force and Navy strategic nuclear forces until his retirement in 1994.

It was once believed that the power of nuclear weapons prevented the Cold War animosities between the United States and the Soviet Union from escalating into a real war. Now that the Cold War has ended, however, it is easier to see the terrible risks and unjustified costs of maintaining a nuclear arsenal. Belief in nuclear deterrence —the concept that nations with nuclear weapons will not deploy them against one another out of fear of nuclear retaliation— jeopardized the one thing...