US declassifies Cold War n-plan

The US National Security Archive has fully declassified the most controversial nuclear policy document of the Cold War, the Presidential Directive 59 (PD-59), which focused on a possible nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

The full text of the document, available on the US National Security Archive page at George Washington University's website, provides insights about the thinking of key US officials about the state of nuclear planning and the possible progression of events should war break out.

In a surprising reverse from previous policies, PD-59 called for pre-planned nuclear strike options and capabilities for rapid development of target plans against such key target categories as "military and control targets," including nuclear forces, command and control, stationary and mobile military forces, and industrial facilities that supported the military.


A key element of PD-59 was to use high-tech intelligence to find nuclear weapons targets, strike them with "pinpoint" precision, and then assess the damage.

The architects of PD-59 envisioned the possibility of protracted nuclear war with the Soviet Union that avoided escalation to all-out conflict.

The archive's annotation emphasises the fact that the US nuclear doctrine has not been altered much since PD-59 became effective, and "while President Obama has set a nuclear-free world as a policy goal, it is unlikely that nuclear planning arrangements will change significantly in the foreseeable future".

Highly classified for decades, PD-59 was signed in July 1980 by President Jimmy Carter "during a period of heightened Cold War tensions due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, greater instability in the Middle East, and earlier strains over China policy, human rights, the Horn of Africa, and Euromissiles".