Mutual assured destruction (MAD)

[Richard Fiero]

It's not clear to me what exactly was meant in "Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?"
"An unblinking acceptance of a holocaust running to seven- and 
eight-figure body counts has become -- among those who, particularly 
since 1980, have been guiding our military policies -- conventional wisdom."
The notion of MAD was something tossed off by Robert McNamara in the 
sixties and it is extremely unlikely that the US war/political 
machine ever considered anything but a winnable nuclear war.
"Since 1980" could refer to the MX folly of the late Carter 
administration (Soviets could build missiles cheaper and faster than 
the US could build hardened missile silos) which morphed into the 
Reagan provocations of Able Archer 83 and the like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

A cold war conundrum
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm

Mutual assured destruction (MAD)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction