Dr Strangelove: Trivia note

Rating: Null/10 (4 December 2004)

As you can see from the reviews on IMDb, this is a great movie. One trivia fact: the character of Dr Strangelove was based on a composite of researchers at the US RAND research corporation, which has a cold war think tank that looked at
strategic military and scientific issues. The RAND corporation created the thesis of Mutually Assured Destruction - where the threat of nuclear retaliation from both the US and USSR would prevent either side launching a nuclear first strike (sometimes known as the 'balance of terror'). Kubrick interviewed a number of researchers at the corporation for Dr Strangelove, including emigres from
Eastern Europe now working for RAND. The character, and a lot of the ideas he expresses, were based on genuine RAND research into nuclear warfare. In the
film, Dr Strangelove is identified as working for the BLAND corporateion - not too far from the truth!