Date

Apr 25, 1977

Description

The version of the Brown memorandum released to the National Security Archive has a bit less information from the second paragraph compared to the FRUS version, but it includes a memorandum from the Pentagon’s Planning and Evaluation Office (P&E) that responded to Harold Brown’s request to confirm the JCS’s casualty estimates. Unable to do so, P&E developed its own estimates of fatalities caused by attacks on economic and population targets. The range of numbers assumed the “combined effects of radiation and airblast,” with fire effects evidently not considered.

Source

Released through MDR appeal to ISCAP

Document published in following posting(s):

New State Department History Details Nuclear Targeting and Continuity of Government, 1977-1980

Apr 17, 2024

Memorandum From Secretary of Defense Brown to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski), “Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) Targeting Philosophy,” 25 April 1977, with memorandum and tables attached, Top Secret, Excised copy