Hoffman claims that MAD should not be the sole guiding
principle, since US-USSR relations
are far more complicated
Military competition around Soviet efforts at peripheral
expansion and American efforts to
contain them
For instance, according to Hoffman it is unclear whether
we would really retaliate if the
USSR invaded Europe; mutual destruction was not necessarily assured
The USSR concentrated on its conventional forces in
preparation for a potential
quick victory in Europe despite MAD
Furthermore, the USSR maintained ballistic missile
defenses, air defenses, and
shelters for political leaders
Furthermore, MAD did not fit the domestic political
structure of the United
States. The perverted logic was not really acceptable to
the American public, and the
USSR even had reason to believe that the West would not be able to keep up qualitatively