46 Years Ago In TIME

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Sora Song, Deirdre Van Dyk

As the Bush Pentagon mulls loosening the traditional constraints the U.S. has placed on its nuclear arms, which limit their use to retaliation or extraordinary combat situations, it is interesting to see how TIME described their deterrent effect in a 1956 cover on THE MISSILE..

The ICBM is the nearest thing to an "ultimate weapon," complete with delivery system, that has ever been conceived. From U.S.-controlled territory, it could reach any part of the world, wreck the biggest city by blast and heat. Then the radioactive byproducts, drifting with the wind, could turn an area the size of many nations into a silent wilderness...The missilemen are not happy, however. Both civilian and military, they know too well the potential effect on the earth of thermonuclear warfare. They fear that some small, irresponsible nation may get hold of a missile or two and blot out the capital city of a nation that it hates. Or perhaps when the great nations are armed to the teeth with long-range missiles and nervously watching each other, some quick mistake will be made...Retaliation may result in counter-retaliation, and in a few more minutes all the world's missiles may fly. But missilemen also have a hope that supports them: the ultimate weapon may produce the ultimate stalemate, a world in which all factions are afraid to start a war, and will take measures to keep it from starting accidentally.

--TIME, Jan. 30, 1956