2°8
DASA 2019-2
subjected to the idea that developing a simple defense program is
provocative, that it will provoke the Russians. That's a very strong
force in this country.
TVhe secosd point I think is that they are probably unlikely, at
leant the way things are developing internationally now, to be sub-
jected to someall-out massive attack,
Therefore, they can answer
the questions What is the world going to be like; is the world going
to be worth living in afterwards in Sweden?" They can anewer a little bit more affirmatively, "Yes." But I think the strong point is
that there's been no anti-civil defense.
ROOT: I was there at the height of the program and they were
worried about the Russian reaction, And Finland was worricd. It's
very important for that area for Sweden to stay neutral to help the
actual border countries.
They also did what they consider a possible provocative thing.
They reorganized the military structure instituting compulsory service for all citizens, to provide a constantly changing but constantly
standing army, which they didn't have before.
UPTON:
Of course, there's the other element, too, which you
brought ou:, Ithink, on the first day, Ted, and that is that we have
relied on the old adage ''The best defense is a strong offense," and
we lave more or less thrust into the background the notion that
soniething might happen even though we were able to deter it. With
change in the distribution of plutonium throughout the world, this
philosophy becomes increasingly precarious.
TAYLOR: I must just say that as far as I'm concerned | have had
some doubts about whether we should have a civil defense program in
the past. {have no doubt whatsoever now, for this reason, that I've
seen ways in which the deterrent forces can fail to hold things off,
so that no matter what our national leaders do, criminal organizations, what have you, groups of people over which we have no control
whatsocver, can threaten other groups of people.
UPTON: This deterrent philosophy wouldn't be valid at all for
Sweden or Switzerland or smaller powers.
SPEAR: I must say that I've never been able to understand the
reaction to which you refer, I know it exists, the feeling that a