Talk:Herman Kahn

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The info on him coining the word escalation is wrong although he did invent escalatory in On Escalation. The first cite in the OED is from the Kansas City Star 29 March 1938 and another quote is from his Thinking about Unthinkable written 3 years before the book he supposedly coined the word. So I've removed the claim.MeltBanana 01:09, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)


In the "Cultural Influence" section, the mention of the bombing of New York City is a rather large spoiler. Therefore, I have added a spoiler warning. Georgesch4 10:25, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Now its the time for to read the "thinking the underthinking" look for Irã and Korea.

Contents

[edit] Dr Strangelove

"It was said that Kubrick immersed himself in On Thermonuclear War and insisted that the film's producer also read it."

On the Dr Strangelove page, the film's producer is listed as ... a Mr. Stanley Kubrick. Erm... --HiddenInPlainSight 11:18, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

I heard Kahn speak in 1965 at the Contra Costa Junior College in San Pablo, CA. I was at that time an electronics technician at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Khan talked about the Viet Nam War. He told the crowd that the US could not win that war because the enemy were totally committed to winning at all costs. His words were like this, "We cannot win a war against an idea with all of our bombs and rockets unless we are prepared to go all of the way." I find that to be very relevant today. We cannot win in Iraq unless we are prepared to eliminate all of the people there. There are about 1 billion Muslims in this world. Must we kill all of them? We must find a way to coexist with Islam. There is no other way.

[edit] Scenarios

In his book The Year 2000, he first used the word "scenarios" to describe hypothetical series of events that may possibly occur. Since then, the word has found common use among the general population.Lestrade 12:57, 3 February 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] Cultural Influence

Also based upon Kahn was Walter Matthau's maverick character Professor Groteschele in Fail-Safe, in which a nuclear crisis forces the President (played by Henry Fonda) to order the U.S. Air Force to bomb New York in order to avert an all-out nuclear war.

The description in this sentence of Goteschele's role in the movie could afford some elaboration. I think there needs to be a link made between Fonda's and Matthau's roles in that second part of the sentence or it becomes just a superfluous review of the movie with no particular relationship to Kahn. Not to nitpick, but the "in which" linking the first phrase and the second seems grammatically a bit awkward.

Pat 04:54, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps someone with more time than me, but with a real understanding (read academic and historically accurate) of US nuclear deterrence theory can compare him and Thomas Schelling. They were contemporaries, and their theories on deterrence, and how to achieve it, were in direct opposition. For example, Kahn felt it was imperative that the US build a large, and diverse nuclear arsenal to give credibility to our nuclear threat, thereby achieving the necessary deterrent effect: but, Schelling advocated building an arsenal that was large enough to threaten, but no larger...as the cornerstone of his theory of deterrence was instability- ie, the system is inherently unstable by the presence of nuclear weapons, and that instability is what keep s the system balanced, therefore a few nuclear weapons can achieve the same affect as many nuclear weapons. I realize this Wiki is not about Schelling, but any discussion of Kahn in a vacuum devoid of Schelling (and likewise) is silly considering the immense influence they had on each other, and the competition between their two theories to form US nuclear policy in the Cold War (a contest ultimately won by Schelling's theory, and one which strangely is still in effect today, much to the detriment of the safety of 330 million Americans). 72.83.168.197 13:18, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Family Matters

In the Background section, the information on Herman kahn's family is formally unencyclopedic. It seems as though it was written by either a person who is ignorant of conventional writing or is under the pressure of haste.Lestrade 19:57, 13 July 2007 (UTC)Lestrade

Agreein.' If I'm not mistaken, there's a seperate Wiki project dealing entirely with family trees and such. It should be there. I'm deleting it. tildetildetildetilde —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.114.231.10 (talk) 06:51, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] LSD

According to Tim Leary in an interview with Paul Krassner in the Realist, this man did LSD, and it changed his life. Should that be included?

I know several people who were peers or protégé's of Herman, he never did LSD. That is a pop culture myth perpetuated by people who likely sought/seek to assassinate his character for a variety of reasons. Suffice it to say, there is no way to effectively describe why here, but I fully trust these people, and I am confident in saying Herman never "dropped acid." - 72.83.168.197 12:47, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
Timothy Leary, as an addictive drug pusher, had in interest in making it seem that drugs are acceptable and used by famous people. His veracity should always be doubted, especially when he made such assertions.Lestrade 22:25, 3 December 2007 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] Reference problems?

I added a reference to something in Cultural Influence, but although there is a ref list, for some reason I see no references in the whole article? Very odd... — talk § Arsenic99 04:44, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Corpulence

What was his weight when he died?Lestrade (talk) 20:04, 12 April 2008 (UTC)Lestrade