For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon: a doomsday device. Intelligence sources traced the site of the top secret Russian project to the perpetually fog-shrouded wasteland below the Arctic peaks of the Zhokhov Islands. What they were building or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place no one could say.
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.President Merkin Muffley: You mean people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?Dr. Strangelove: It would not be difficult, Mein Fuhrer! Nuclear reactors could... I'm sorry, Mr. President... nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely.
Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH?Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
General "Buck" Turgidson: Hmm... Strangelove? What kind of a name is that? That ain't no Kraut name is it, Stainesey?Mr. Staines: He changed it when he became a citizen. Used to be Merkwürdigeliebe. [the German word for "Strangelove"]General "Buck" Turgidson: Well, a Kraut by any other name, uh Stainesey?
[discussing the Doomsday machine]President Merkin Muffley: How is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically and at the same time impossible to untrigger?Dr. Strangelove: Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the FEAR to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday machine is terrifying and simple to understand... and completely credible and convincing.