Making a study influential in a city overwhelmed by wonk reports requires choosing the right person. That was why ARPA’s director tapped Albert Wohlstetter, one of Rand’s most influential nuclear theorists, to head the study. If Herman Kahn was the court jester of the nuclear world, Wohlstetter was its cardinal whose advice carried real weight with policy makers. Wohlstetter had been a mentor to Kahn, who often repackaged Wohlstetter’s ideas for his own popular writing. If Kahn could spin up a lecture hall with briefings that tallied civilian deaths like a football score, Wohlstetter by
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