Kateřina Belešová

Class: History of the Cold War

Lecturer: Bill Eddleston

Movie Report

“Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)”

How plausible (pravděpodobný) is Dr. Strangelove's portrayal of the dangers posed by Cold War

military policies of the US and USSR ? (In your answer refer to specific crisis such as the Cuban

Missile Crisis from 1962 and the Berlin crisis from 1961)

The portrayal of the nuclear danger in the film Dr. Strangelove is more plausible than some of us

can imagine. In what extent and how close came the situation of the nuclear danger during the Cold

War, more specifically during the First Berlin Crisis and Cuban Missile Crisis and in what sense is

the movie parallel with the Crisis in realities during the Cold War?

The black and white comedy movie Dr. Strangelove is made in 1963 (note: right after the escalation

of the Cold War-Cuban Missile Crisis) by the very talented Stanley Kubrick. The main actor, a man

who initiates the nuclear attack on the USSR, undermining the presidents authority being the only

one who can do so, is a general Jack D. Ripper. Also, he's the only one who has the secret code to

recall his fleet. How come he's able to do so? Well, it's a “safety gap” in the US military policy, so

called “Plan R”. “Plan R is an emergency war plan in which a lower echelon commander may

order nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack if the normal chain of command is disrupted. You

approved it, sir. You must remember....The idea was for Pan R to be sort of safeguard”1 Therefore is
1
“Dr. Strangelove”
the central authority of the president devaluated and he lost his control over the subject matter.

There is also no possibility of communicating with the fleet, because they are unable to contact

them; the Plan R includes CRM 114, which orders the bombers from any communication with the

outside world. It gets worse when the president gets to know that the USSR created a doomsday

device (to be announced soon to the world) which may be set off by any attack on the Russian soil

and can't be switched off.

Finally, as the air in the War Room, where they negotiate about this dangerous situation gets

thicker and thicker and high officials and the president become very nervous, a leading light from

the dark starts to shine-group captain Lionel Mandrake figures out the three secret letters, which

seems to be a lifesaver. They stop the operation and recall the fleet. It seems that the mission is over,

but one of the bombers communication systems isn't working so they don't know that the mission is

off and continue in their journey to bomb the base. So, the doomsday came. As the Russian

ambassador Desadeski said “Cobalt thorium G has a radioactive half life of ninety three years.... A

lethal cloud of radioactivity which will encircle the earth for ninety three years!”2 Basically, there is

no chance for humankind to survive on the surface of the earth, only underneath, where the

radioactivity can't reach.

The paralells between the movie and the reality during the First Berlin crisis and Cuban

Missile Crisis

The negotiations and diplomacy during the Cold War was the major aspect. Without these two

aspects the Cold War would escalate into enormous disasters such as the the nuclear holocaust,

wiping out the whole world, which is indicated at the end of the film Dr. Strangelove.

There are situations where human factor is not easily avoidable. You never know how the person

would react in the given situation. Indeed, it is different from the regular situation when the man

doesn't bear such a responsibility. During the Big Four Conference, when president Eisenhower was

2
Alexi De Sadeski, Russian ambassador in the film Dr. Strangelove, played by Peter Bull, by Stanley Kubrick and
Terry Southern, based on the novel “Red Alert” by Peter George
in power, he and Khrushchev agreed on peaceful negotiations stating that :“all outstanding

international questions should be settled, not by the application of force, but by peaceful means

through negotiations." 3 Eisenhower's policy of MAD or also called massive retaliation was

illogical but credible and it meant to deter the enemy before they start to fight. What if president

Kennedy's administration wasn't flexible response and would use MAD when the Berlin Crises of

1961 reached it's highest point and the Berlin wall was aroused? The erection of Berlin wall is seen

as an aggressive act and therefore the US could have used their nuclear power to retaliate. They

didn't and it was a good negotiation skill and diplomatic maneuver of president Kennedy. Kennedy

accepted the erection of the Berlin wall and so the world escaped from the nuclear holocaust. We

compare the president Merkin Mufflin in Dr. Strangelove with president Kennedy, when Mufflin

decides to shoot down (basically sacrifice his own American fleet) his last US bomber in order to

save the mankind. Kennedy also saved the human race with accepting the Berlin Wall. One can only

speculate what would happened if he wouldn't.

Also if we take into consideration the US policy during the Cold War and have a closer look at the

National Security Report (NSC-68), we can see an analogy of behavior of general “Buck”

Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove. The document NSC-68 embraces the preemptive attack of the US on

the USSR. “It should be also noted that the Soviet embrace of preemption in doctrine came five

years later after the US government adopted preemption (in NSC-68), and seven years in fact by the

U.S. adoption of Air Command”4 It can be seen as a supportive military element in the deterrence

policy.

Another example is the comparison of Turgidson with the Air Force chief of staff General Curtis

LeMay during Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. General Curtis LeMay also as Turgidson advised the

president to take military actions against Cuba. “...I just don't see any other solution except direct

3
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/berlin.htm
4
Garthoff, Raymond L. “Deterrence and the Revolution in the Soviet Military Doctrine.” p. 45.
military intervention right now."5 The president Kennedy disagrees and insists on keeping the

situation on a diplomatic level without using harsh military power. Cuba is under quarantine

(blockade) so no USSR ships can enter Cuban territory.

The USSR policy during Cold War war highlighted by the steady competition between the nuclear

capacities of US and USSR. Both of them wanted to be number one in order to deter its opponent.

The Russian doomsday device in the film can be compared with the missile arsenal built on Cuba.

At that time was the USSR one step ahead of the US and so was the USSR by building unstoppable

doomsday device. The Russians knew that they needed some kind of a specialty to catch up with the

Americans.

The movie itself also openly hides symbols in its characters. For instance, general Ripper's name

shows also the cruelty in his name. His name suggests that he's a heartless psychopathic man with

the intentions of destroying the mankind; starting the nuclear war, not caring about the civilians and

about the consequences. The War Room is full of men, no women is in this decisive position and

they do not even slightly show their interest in their families.

All in all, the film is very plausible to the real Cold War Us and USSR policies and we can find a

lot of comparisons. Real life human factor can't be neglected and must be somehow safeguarded

otherwise there would an inevitable disaster. The real US preemptive policies such as the NSC-68

and the comparison of LeMay and Turgidson, or the Russian steady competition with the US e.g.

missiles on Cuba and doomsday device in the film, show directly the plausibility in the film.

5
http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/ October 19, 1962.
Bibliography:

1.) Lindley, Dan. “What I Learned Since I Stopped Worrying and Studied the Movie:A

Teaching Guide to Stanley Kubrick's “Dr. Strangelove”. University of Notre Dame.

2.) Duncan, Paul. “Pocket Essential: Stanley Kubrick.”2002.

3.) Phillips, Gene D. and Hill, Rodney. “The Encyclopedia of Stanley Kubrick”

Footnotes:

1. “Dr. Strangelove”

2. Alexi De Sadeski, Russian ambassador in the film Dr. Strangelove, played by Peter Bull, by

Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern, based on the novel “Red Alert” by Peter George

3. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/berlin.htm

4. Garthoff, Raymond L. “Deterrence and the Revolution in the Soviet Military Doctrine.” p. 5.

5. http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/ October 19, 1962.