In other ways an inspection scheme on the scale required for protection against surprise attack might yield excessive information about the disposition of the other's forces and make them more vulnerable. … Imagine the state of tension that could occur if either side's strategic-force personnel began to suffer a severe epidemic that threatened to immobilize them temporarily before the eyes of the other side's inspection. Much better—if we and they are occasionally to land in a very unalert position for reasons that are impossible to prevent—that neither of us should be in a position to know too much about the other's occasional disabilities.

XREF: Relates to Schelling's deterrence and mutual vulnerability ideas, and to more general thinking on the strategic value of ignorance and opacity.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 558