Kissinger, an active participant at academic conferences and seminars on nuclear war, wrote, in one volume of essays on the subject, that deterrence “is as much a psychological as a military problem” and that a “threat meant as a bluff but taken seriously is more useful for purposes of deterrence than a ‘genuine’ threat interpreted as a bluff.” In some games of “threats and counter-threats,” he wrote, a “premium will be placed on irresponsibility,” and both sides—Americans and Soviets—will “have to be ready to act like madmen.”
