RAND Corporation
Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped form United States policy decisions on many issues: the space race, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the Great Society social welfare programs, the digital revolution, and national health care. It was best known for the doctrine of nuclear deterrence by mutually assured destruction (MAD), based upon their work with game theory. Chief strategist Herman Kahn discussed the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War. This led to Kahn being one of the models for "Dr Strangelove" in Dr. Strangelove. In the movie, RAND is spoofed as the "BLAND Corporation".