A number of key puzzles from the era of détente remain unresolved. A particularly salient aspect of nuclear policy during the 1970s was the debate over limited nuclear options (LNOs): how central should LNOs be to nuclear doctrine and what form should they take? Moreover, at the same time these questions were being resolved, arms control took a bizarre turn. A negotiation that had centered on ballistic missiles and their counterforce capability suddenly came to focus on cruise missiles – slow moving second-strike weapons of less than intercontinental range. The conjunction of these two issues was not coincidental. Theater range cruise missiles and LNOs suggested the possibility of less than all-out nuclear exchanges, potentially occurring over a protracted period of time. They also coincided with intelligence suggesting Moscow was thinking about nuclear war in such terms. How should Washington have responded to these new circumstances?