In the early 1960s, a lot of people had no doubt that soon a third world war would start. It was supposed to be a nuclear conflict between the US and the Soviet Union, which would lead to the destruction of humanity, or at least to the collapse of modern civilization. Regularly occurring conflicts like the Korean War of 1950-1953 and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 intensified the tensions and cultivated the fear in society. Sooner or later, with malicious intent or by mistake, the Cold War could turn into a "Hot War". Everyone understood it, and there were different reactions, from digging underground shelters to going to large-scale protests. A Hollywood director Stanley Kubrick filmed a military and political satire, called “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the bomb” (Kubrick et al., 1964), which was inspired by a dramatic novel of Peter George, “Red Alert”.
The plot of the film depicts how an obsessed General Jack D. Ripper, the commander of the military air base, sends a squadron of bombers carrying nuclear weapons to bomb the USSR. Trying to save the situation, US President Muffley, collects his advisers, including the valiant General Turgidson and ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove, in a secret “War Room”. They connect with the Soviet official, discovering that there is a “Doomsday Machine” in USSR, programmed to eliminate the mankind on the surface of the Earth in case of a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, and, despite the efforts to prevent it from activating, it triggers a range of explosions in the end.
The characters of the film had the characteristics that reminded the audience about real people. First, the President of the United States Muffley unites the images of US Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, who was the first Supreme Commander of NATO but managed to make first steps towards a détente with the USSR, and John Kennedy, as well as of the rather liberal diplomat Adlai Stevenson, who played a significant part during the Cuban Missile crisis. The Doctor Strangelove himself reminds of a German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, a former Nazi and the creator of the V-2 rockets, of John von Neumann, Hungarian mathematician of Jewish origin, who developed the nuclear deterrence concept, and of Henry Kissinger, who was one of the first nuclear war theorists, developing the concept of limited nuclear war (Siano, 1995). General Turgidson, an active proponent of the violent solution to the situation, is a personification of paranoia which reigned in both sides to the Cold War and the corresponding military attack and defense strategies and tactics. Strategic Air Command commander General Curtis LeMay, Senator Joseph McCarthy and other strenuous supporters of intractable policy served as a model to compose this character (Lindley, 2001).
The absurd reality of the film corresponded in some way with the situation in the real world. It raises the issue of the necessity of nuclear deterrence, and, at its extreme, of the existence of a “Doomsday Machine”. The idea itself was suggested by Herman Kahn, who depicted it in his work “On thermonuclear war”, pointing out that the notification of the existence of such machine would be necessary (Kahn, 1960). Similarly, Dr. Strangelove notices in the film that the existence of such machine would be effective only if it would be known to the world, and the Soviet part agreed, but, ironically enough, this did not prevent the machine from being activated. But can we really suppose that, if General Ripper knew about its existence, he wouldn’t order to drop the bombs? Dan Lindley pointed out fairly enough that “Deterrence is impossible if the enemy fears nothing and does not mind being dead and destroyed” (2001).
Another issue raised in the film is the actual extent of subordination in the military At the time, military commanders could act at their own discretion if the highest command had been destroyed, which was misused in the film by General Ripper. As President Muffley was unable to stop Ripper and to persuade Turgidson, who didn’t care much of the opinion of the President, the film demonstrates potential will of the military to deal with the “military affairs” without any politicians involved and the crisis of the civil-military relations at the time of the premiere (Lindley, 2001). Finally, the range of these problems led to the activation of the Doomsday Machine.
In 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed and became the first international treaty aimed at slowing down the arms race. The states parties to this treaty undertook “to prohibit, to prevent, and not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion, or any other nuclear explosion, at any place under its jurisdiction or control” in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water (2016). It was aimed, among other things, at preventing the contamination of the environment by radioactive debris. However, the final scene of Dr. Strangelove depicts a range of nuclear explosions caused by the Doomsday Machine, which, according to Soviet ambassador Alexei De Sadesky, would cause massive radioactive pollution which would make it impossible to live on the surface of the Earth for almost a century. A final scene like that can be seen as implying that sometimes international agreements and commitments may turn out to be ineffective, as long as there are any possibilities of a misuse of nuclear weapon, especially if it is performed by a person obsessed by war.
As a conclusion, we could say that Dr. Strangelove reflected the spirit of its epoch – grim to the extent of funniness. It demonstrated how unstable can be the world peace and how the fate of the world could be determined by people who behave like children, going “funny things”, guided by their complexes and paranoiac ideas. That makes the film even more relevant now, when there are few people who expect a large-scale nuclear war between the nuclear states. However, the nuclear power hasn’t disappeared since the 1960’s. That makes Dr. Strangelove a film worth watching for the present day students.
References
Kahn, H. (1960). On thermonuclear war. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kubrick, S., Southern, T., George, P., Sellers, P., Scott, G. C., Hayden, S., Wynn, K., Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (Firm). (2004). Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Culver City, Calif: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
Lindley, D. (2001). What I Learned Since I Stopped Worrying and Studied the Movie: A Teaching Guide to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. PS: Political Science & Politics, 34(03), 663-667.
Siano, B. (1995). A Commentary on Dr. Strangelove. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0017.html
Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/pdf/Partial_Ban_Treaty.pdf
