‘U.S., Russia Share Same Nightmare’

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29763, 5 March 1962, Page 13

‘U.S., Russia Share Same Nightmare’

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) NEW YORK, March 4. President Kennedy and Mr Khrushchev each feared that the other would be the first to get a defence against the guided missile and thus be in a position to launch an atomic attack without fear of retaliation, James Reston, of the “New York Times,” said today.

Thus President Kennedy and the Soviet leader had at least one thing in common They both shared the same nightmare. Reston said. For the time being, the atomic offensive weapons dominated the defensive weapons Each side in the world conflict had the power to devastate the other. “But suppose this balance of terror were destroyed by a sudden scientific breakthrough of defensive weapons on one side or the other? “Whet would happen, for example, if the Russians exploded several 100-megaton hydrogen bombs in the atmosphere? Would this inferno in the sky create such a heat-field that our retaliatory missiles would be destroyed or deflected from their course? “The short answer, apparently. is that nobody knows.” No world leader ever made a nore detailed or solemn explanation of a scientific and military problem than President Kennedy did on Friday night, but he could not tell the whole nightmare for several reasons. Reston said. First, considerations of security made it difficult to illustrate the problem in detail without disclosing to the Soviet more than United States scientists thought should be disclosed. Second. the ghoulish dreams were not based on proved farts, but on unproved possibilities The President had not called for more atmospheric tests because he knew the effect of atmospheric fire on America's ability to retaliate, but because he did not know.

What he did know was that the Soviet Union was working in its last series of atmospheric tests on what seemed to be anti-missile devices. He knew that the United States Air Force planes constantly patrolling above the Arctic brought back samples of the atmospheric debris from the Soviet explosions containing far more particles of lead than ever before; and the scientists in Washington were able to infer from this and other studies of the height and nature of the explosions that it was the anti-missile that the Russians were after. Mr Khrushchev no doubt had similar worries. He knew the United States, too. was searching for a defence against the missile: that scientists everywhere were working on missiles composed of substances that could not be picked up on radar screens: and that there was a furious race going on to develop a hydrogen bomb that could be triggered without the use of fissionable material. This race between offensive and defensive weapons bad been going on in the world ever since the invention of the spear and the bow and arrow. Every offensive weapon provoked a race to produce a counterweapon.

"This is merely the military application of the law of self-preservation: and the history of the world is full of the tragedies of nations that would neither talk nor test—or insisted on merely talking while the other tested the new decisive weapons,” Reston added.