Bob Scheiffer compares the Soviet and the U.S nuclear arsenal and examines the potential repercussions of a 15-megaton nuclear attack on the U.S, specifically the Strategic Air Command's Ohama headquarters.
Looks at the buildup of tactical nuclear weapons along key borders. Harry Reasoner travels to Europe where he finds foot soldiers armed with nuclear weapons, trained to fight a conventional and a nuclear war at the same time.
Ed Bradley looks into volunteer soldiers and the personnel problems the army is facing, from retention to finding skilled technicians. He investigates expensive "bureaucratic juggernaut," caused by infights between military chiefs of the four services.
President Dwight Eisenhower's warming of a military-industrial complex is the topic of "The War Machine." Richard Threlkeld looks into money wasted on the wrong weapons, such as the F-18. This segment analyses the "Iron Triangle" made of the Pentagon as consumer, the Congress as banker, and the defense contractor as supplier.
Walter Cronkite travels to Moscow to learn more about Russians, the "enemy" and potential target of the U.S. weapons. They of course think of the America as the aggressor.