-62~
have it used against him,
If such arrangements are made, the bomb cannot but prove in the net a
powerful inhibition to aggression.
It would make relatively little difference if
one power had more bombs and were better prepared to resist them than its
opponent,
It would in any case undergo incalculable destruction of life and
property,
It is clear that there existed in the 'thirties a deeper and probably
more generalized revulsion against war than in any other era of history.
Under
those circumstances the breeding of a new war required a situation combining
dictators of singular irresponsibility with a notion among them and their general
staffs that aggression would be both successful and cheap.
The possibility of
irresponsible or desperate men again becoming rulers of powerful states cannot
under the prevailing system of international politics be ruled out in the future,
But it does seem possible to erase the idea-~if not among madmen rulers then at
least among their military supporterse-that agzression widi" be “cheap,
iz
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thus, thefirstandmostvital step inanyAmerican ‘security program for the
a”
age of atomic bombs is to take measures to guarantee to ourselves in case of
cee eeeee ER AN
—
attack the possibility ofretaliation inkind,The writer in making that statement is not for the moment conzerned about who will win the next war in which
atomic bombs are used,
has been to win wars,
Thus far the chicf purpose of our military establishment
From now on its chief purpose must be to avert them.
It
can have almost no other useful purpose,
Neither is the writer especially concerned with whether the guarantee of
retaliation is based on national or international power.
However, one cannot be
unmindful of one obvious fact: for the period immediatcly ahead, we must evolve
our plans with the knowledge that there is a vast difference between what a
nation can do domestically of its own volition and on its own initiative and
what it can do with respect to programs which depend on achieving agreement with
other nations,
Naturally, our domestic policies concerning the atomic bomb and
the national defense generally should not be such as to prejudice real