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How did mutual assured destruction seek to create stability between nuclear superpowers?

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nuclear strategy The explosion from the first thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb), code-named Mike, which was detonated at Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands, November 1, 1952. The photograph was taken at an altitude of 3,600 metres (12,000 feet) 80 km (50 miles) from the detonation site.

Mutual assured destruction (MAD) sought to create stability between nuclear superpowers by establishing a deterrence framework based on the certainty of total annihilation for both the attacker and the defender. By the mid-1960s, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara argued that stability could be maintained if both sides possessed an "assured-destruction capability"—the ability to inflict "unacceptable damage" (defined as destroying a significant percentage of the opponent's population and industry) even after absorbing a first strike.12

To ensure this stability, superpowers developed a nuclear triad consisting of land-based ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines, and long-range bombers. This redundancy guaranteed a secure second strike, making a preemptive attack irrational because it would not prevent a devastating retaliation. This "balance of terror" discouraged direct conflict, as both sides recognized that any nuclear exchange would lead to mutual destruction, ultimately influencing arms control efforts like the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which confirmed the primacy of offensive capabilities to maintain the strategic standoff.1324