Within days after Presidential Directive No. 59 was leaked to the New York Times (August 6, 1980) and reported as "a new strategy for nuclear war," it was under attack by dedicated arms controllers. Among these were Jeremy J. Stone of the Federation of American Scientists, Herbert Scoville of the Arms Control Association, and Bernard T. Feld of MIT. All three lamented the apparent shift away from making population centers the primary targets of nuclear weapons on both sides—the dogma of mutual assured destruction (MAD)—that had appeared to ensure stability by making nuclear war unthinkable.