Newer nuclear weapons were less complex in operation, relatively mass-produced (and therefore predictably similar), and less cumbersome to arm and use than previous designs. Accordingly, new methods were necessary to prevent their unauthorized use. As the Cold War came to a head in the 1960s, the government felt it best not to leave the use of nuclear weapons in the hands of possibly-renegade generals, including the commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC).Richard Rhodes: Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York 1996, . Without Permissive Action Links, each nuclear weapon was effectively under the independent control of one person, the general under whose command it happened to fall.
Newer nuclear weapons were less complex in operation, relatively mass-produc,ed (and therefore predictably similar), and less cumbersome to arm and use than previous designs. Accordingly, new methods were necessary to prevent their unauthorized use. As the Cold War came to a head in the 1960s, the government felt it best not to leave the use of nuclear weapons in the hands of possibly-renegade generals, including the commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC).Richard Rhodes: Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York 1996, . Without Permissive Action Links each nuclear weapon was effectively under the independent control of one person, the general under whose command it happened to fall.