\* \ -120effort. This, by the way, suggests that the possible consequences of atomic warfare on the weaker countries need to be carefully explored. A few tentative remarks may help to indicate the importance of the problem for the military cal- culations of this country and the Soviet Union. The military situation of the lesser countries, at least if they possess no atomic power of their om, will certainly continue to be unenviable. If any of them should become involved in a Soviet-American atomic war, the survival not merely of their cities but of a major part of their population would come to depend on discussions of the two major belligerents which they could not hope to influence, If, for instance, the Soviet Union, with her easy access to. some of these countries, decided to overrun them, they would become exposed to American atomic bombardument, Such occupation might appear to the Russians to offer mil- itary advantages if, in expectation of a long struggle, they hoped to divert some of our attacks to targets outside of their borders or believed they could win control of undamaged productive facilities while their orm were being demm woycedt stroyed. a ~, 7s, . -* F i In view of these dangers, the prevailingspinton appears to be that the military position of lesser countries, precarious enough in the past, has now become desperate, Some go so far as to suggest that the weak countries of Europe and Asia might as well save the money they are spending on obsolete non-atomic weapons and, in case of a Soviet-American war, run for shelter by joining the side which would have the best chance of overrumning them first. would obviously be the Soviet Union. This side If this were the policy which we would have to expect these countries to pursue, the cffects on our policy of determent of Russia would depend on how much military benefit the Soviet Union would hope to gain from the alignment with these weaker countries. There are some reasons, however, why the weaker countries may discover their prospects of keeping out of a war between the two giant powers, or of defending themselves if attacked, more promising than before the atomic agc. We have 19%