§ 23. Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will make a statement about the possible consequences for Great Britain and NATO of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics possessing an effective first-strike capability.
§ Mr. MulleyAn effective first-strike capability denotes the capacity to use strategic weapons to destroy an adversary's own strategic systems before he has the opportunity to use them. If such a capability existed it would be destabilising and dangerous. But it does not exist. Both the United States and the USSR have an invulnerable second strike capability and neither side could make a first strike with impunity.