An additional factor of American foreign-policy making at this time was a blind faith in technology and the systems in place within the government and military, built to allow nuclear war. The development of new weaponry was an important marker of the early Cold War during the late 1940s and 1950s, beginning with the American atomic bomb, leading to a Soviet response with their own atomic bomb in 1949. The US then advanced this with a hydrogen bomb in 1952, with the Soviets again creating their own a year later.[13] This increasingly radicalised development of new weapons was indicative of the increasingly intense ‘arms race’ between America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a competition in having the most military power and therefore the upper hand in any future conflict. This radicalisation is extended by Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove, with the nuclear gap extending to a ‘doomsday gap’. In this scenario, the Soviet Union has created a doomsday device which will destroy all life on earth in the event of a nuclear attack. While this concept seems absurd and far-fetched, it is only a small extension of the theory behind nuclear weapons, which Henry Kissinger argued was essential in Nuclear War and Foreign Policy (1957).[14] Roger Ebert argues that ‘What Kubrick’s Cold War satire showed was not men at the mercy of machines, but machines at the mercy of men’, placing all responsibility on those who created and control nuclear technology.[15] The concept of a Doomsday device was actively entertained and worked on by the Soviet Union in 1974, known as “the Dead Hand”, which ‘could allow junior military officials to launch missiles without oversight from the Soviet leadership’.[16] Kubrick’s identification of this concept in 1964 shows his prescience and accuracy in predicting the natural conclusion of the radicalised development of technology. Much of this technology was intended as a ‘deterrent’ to nuclear war, primarily based on the doctrine of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’. This theorised that the use of nuclear weapons by two opposing nations would guarantee the destruction of both, leading neither of them to initiate a nuclear attack. However, this was not entirely effective, as the US was prepared to adopt a ‘first strike’ policy, and John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State for Eisenhower, insisted on a policy of ‘massive retaliation’.[17] This enforced the intention that if the Soviet Union were to initiate any attack, even one which was not nuclear, the US would respond aggressively with nuclear power. Therefore, the possibility of nuclear war was very likely despite this doctrine, which Kubrick emphasises, and suggests this is indicative of man’s faith in the technology they create.

In conclusion, Stanley Kubrick portrays American foreign policy during the Cold War era in a negative light, highlighting the absurdity of nuclear strategy, anti-Communist paranoia, a blind faith in technology, and a profound lack of understanding of the enormity of nuclear war. The intricacies of nuclear strategy were clearly flawed, as the system was vulnerable to radical individuals starting a war without oversight. Kubrick uses General Ripper to portray this, a man whose conspiracy theories on the infiltration of Communism led him to launch nuclear bombs by himself. Dr. Strangelove is himself utilised to present the blind faith the American government had in their own weapons, which allowed for increasingly radical weaponry to be adopted, heightening the risk of nuclear destruction. Finally, the denial and ignorance of those in power towards the significance and danger of nuclear war was evidently prevalent at this time, which Kubrick exhibits through his characters becoming distracted by personal issues and having faith in the systems they have put in place. Ultimately, Dr Strangelove is a damning satire of US foreign policy and as a commentary on nuclear strategy, has only become more insightful and significant over time.