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-95=
cities could hope to survive another war.
\
However, the idea of a preventive war
is so abhorrent to American feeling that no government in this country, to judge
from the state of public opinion today, could hope to gain popular support for
such an adventure.
Only if there was growing fear that once in possession of the
bomb the Soviet Union would seek expansion by force, might a sweeping change in
public opinion become possible.
That does not answer the question of whether
S
oe
eS
ca
“
she use“of the atomic bomb in
the service of some great humanitarian crusade nighioe-bave a broader appeal.
Here and there one finds people, not cynical nationalists but high-minded and
idealistic internationalists, playing with the idea of such a crusade.
They will
argue that since "world government now" can alone prevent the suicide of civilization, it has become an objective worthy of the greatest sacrifices,
As long as
this country has the atomic monopoly it has the power, never before possessed
by any nation, to break any resistance to the establishment of such a world
government,
If the Soviet Union should refuse to join, we wovld be justified,
according to those who hold this view, in using atomic coercion against her.
Why, they ask, if we felt entitled to destroy two Japanese cities for the sake of
shortening a war, should it not be right to take similar action against the
Russians if mankind can be saved in no other way from the greatest of all catastrophes?
One might brush off this type of argument simply by pointing out that the
American people could never be persuaded to such a course or one might rule it
out as being too immoral for serious consideration,
However, it may be more
important to demonstrate the futility of such a crusade even in terms of the
objectives of its proponents.
Surely nobody would dare to justify an attack on
a nation with which we were at peace unless he believed that it would save the
world from the deadly threat inherent in atomic power.
Let us then, for the sake of argument, assume that this country were to
propose to the Soviet Union and the other nations the immediate establishment of