Hiroshima No More Nagasaki Zendents Union
1985 1985-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
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one that's going to end nuclear war. We're always invulnerable for a few years, but then the Soviets catch up. The Soviet Union is a country that has seen real destruction by war and is going to defend itself.
S.A.: So a lot of education has to be done about what Star Wars represents?
Tschirhart: It's the next step for the Freeze. We've been around for more than three years nationally and we real ize that if the movement is going to continue it has to deepen.
A lot of people see the Freeze as being very broad and very wide. But it's not very deep when you can have some supporters considering Star Wars. Some of them have been working so long that (continued on page 7, in “[SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1985 Carroll: A demoralization occurred…]”)
very large percentage of the weapons provided you burn cities, he continued. "The Sagan group calculates it to be as little as 100 megatons. The start of great firestorms would be enough to trigger a strong version of the nuclear winter."
Gould said that nuclear winterwhile a 50 to 70 percent probabilitycannot be verified mathematically. "But you don't need certainty to use it as a good argument,' he stressed. "I think the main effect of the nuclear winter argument is to mobilize public opinion."
"If they can get away with it, Gould cautioned, "people committed to military establishments will use the argument in other ways. They can say that it is all the more reason to make cleaner weapons or to have more research for weapons."
Socialist Action asked Gould to comment on statements by former government officials, like Alexander Haig, to the effect that nuclear war is winnable. "It depends on your concept of winnable, Gould said. "I think Teller would still say that, but his concept of winnable allows for a wipeout of half of our own people."
Gould believes that mass demonstrations are essential to effectively end nuclear weapons production. "I don't think major political changes are ever made purely by friendly persuasion, he concluded. "People must vociferously make greater demands on nations that hold nuclear weapons."
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HIROSHIMA NO NAGASAKI