Dr. Strangelove: A Satire or a Documentary?

Though the film is considered a satire and certainly contains many elements that could be considered comedic, such as the list of items in the survival kit including nylons and lipstick and dialogue in the War Room including “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the War Room,” I was left wondering how much of it was true. While the beginning of the film insists the safeguards of the U.S. Air Force could prevent any of the events of the film from happening, did American officers have the ability to start a Third World War on their own? This question is what led me to a story published by The New Yorker in 2014 titled “Almost Everything in ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Was True.” Ultimately, this article states that it was true that Eisenhower agreed to let American officers use their nuclear weapons in an emergency if there was no time or means to contact the President, Air Force pilots were allowed to fire nuclear anti-aircraft rockets to shoot down Soviet bombers heading towards the U.S., and about half a dozen high-level commanders had the authority to use more powerful nuclear weapons when their forces were under attack and “the urgency of time and circumstances does not permit a specific decision by the President, or other person empowered to act in his stead.” Following this film and this article, I am left unsure that there truly was a plan in place to prevent an American bomber crew, missile launch crew, or General as in the film from using their weapons against the Soviets. It was not until the Kennedy Administration that locking devices were placed inside NATO’s nuclear weapons and not until the early 1970s that coded switches were added to prevent the unauthorized use of nuclear weapons. The fact that Daniel Ellsberg, who worked as a nuclear war planner in the 1960s, referred to this film as a documentary should be concerning and scary to everyone. While humor may have disguised the reality of the situation at the time, this is hardly a comforting movie now that we realize how ‘real’ it could have been. Did anyone else feel this way, or did you find any comforting factor in the film?