Herman Kahn came to public notice with the publication of On Thermonuclear War (1960), in which he presented his proposition that thermonuclear war differs only in degree and not in kind from conventional war and ought to be analyzed and planned in the same way.

At a time when most people argued that a nuclear conflict was 'unwinnable' and too horrific to contemplate, Kahn ruminated upon not only fighting, but also surviving nuclear war. Mass death and destruction had occurred in the past, argues Kahn, and humans persisted and even thrived. The dead were not envied by those who survived.

In 1961 Kahn left RAND and established the Hudson Institute (for research into matters of national security and public policy) at Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., where he served as chairman and director of research.

Genocide by other means ...

'Sapere aude'