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~71chance it might not have the chance later on,
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The side which was decidedly
weaker in terms of industrial capacity for war would be inclined to use it in
order to equalize the situation on a lower common level of capacity—-for it is
clear that the side with the more elaborate and intricate industrial system would,
other things being equal, be more disadvantaged by mutual use of the bomb than
its opponent.
In so far as those "other things" were not equal, the disparities
involved would also militate for the use of the bomb by ong-side or the other,
Cen h on
Sid be ‘the intolerable
weapon, a fear which could hardly fail to stimulate an anticipatory reaction,
Some observers in considering the chances of effectively outlawing the
atomic bomb have taken a good deal of comfort from the fact
that poison gases
were not used, or at least not used on any considerable scale, during the recent
war,
There is little warrant, however, for assuming that the two problems are
analagous.
Apart from the fact that the recent war presents only a single case
and argues little for the experience of another war even with respect to gas, it
is clear that poison gas and atomic bombs represent two wholly different orders
of magnitude in military utility,
The existence of the treaty outlawing gas was
important, but at least equally important was the conviction in the minds of the
military policy-makers that TNT bombs and tanks of gelatinized gasoline--with
which the gas bombs would have had to compete in airplane carrying capacity—-were
just as effective as gas if not more so,
Both sides were prepared not only to
retaliate with gas against gas attack but also to neutralize with gas masks and
"decontamination units" the chemicals to which they might be exposed.
There is
visible today no comparable neutralization agent for atomic bombs,
Neither side in the recent war wished to bear the onus for violation of the
obligation not to use gas when such violation promised no particular military
advantage,
But, unlike gas, the atomic bomb is a weapon which can scarcely
fail to be decisive if used at all,
That is not to say that any effort to
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