The Press THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1967. New Phase Of The Arms Race

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31480, 21 September 1967, Page 12

The Press THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1967. New Phase Of The Arms Race

The decision of the United States Government to build an anti-ballistic missile system in the Marshall Islands as a defence against possible nuclear attack by China will dismay those who hope for the Slowing of the arms race. If the thinking of the major atomic Powers continues to be governed solely by fear of each other and not by any desire to reach a sensible accommodation, it may well be wondered where this new and fantastic phase of the arms race can lead —except, perhaps, to stalemate on a vaster and more dangerous scale than at present The Secretary of Defence, Mr McNamara, has again urged the Soviet Union to join in “ a race towards reasonableness ” to check the growth of nuclear arsenals. Last January, President Johnson placed the responsibility for any expansion of the arms race on the Russians, who were reported to be ringing Moscow and other large cities with defensive missile systems. He told Congress he would delay decision on an American domestic defence system pending discussion with Moscow.

That attitude Mr Johnson appears to be maintaining, despite pressure from Congress, in the decision to start a defence system against China only. Can a programme of such a nature be limited or qualified? The Russians remain hesitant and suspicious when any positive steps towards non-prolifera-tion of nuclear arms are urged; and.the long-debated agreement seems as far from realisation as ever. China, in any case, has stayed aloof and hostile during the Geneva talks, saying that it would not be bound by any agreement that might be reached. Mr McNamara recognises that technology has now made the consequences of human folly catastrophic. That should be apparent to all who are concerned for the preservation of human society, the heads of governments chief among them. It would be insane, as Mr McNamara has commented, for China to launch a nuclear attack -.gainst the United States. It would be insane for any nation to launch an attack that would invite instant retaliation. The reckoning is that, warning and defensive systems regardless, enough missiles would get through to cause devastation on a vast scale. This argument will have been used already in discussions between Washington and Moscow—its validity, no doubt, accepted on both sides. What has been called the “balance of terror” has been recognised by the United States and the Soviet Union ever since the development of the inter-continental missile. Indeed, the knowledge that either country could destroy the other is regarded as one of the few certainties on which an appeal to reason can be based. But if Washington remains hopeful about coming to terms with Russia, doubt deepens where China is concerned. Mr McNamara can conceive conditions “ under which China might miscalculate ”, Communist China has always believed—or pretended to believe—that an attack on China is part of long-range American planning. Mistrust seems certain to be intensified by the American programme—termed defensive, in the Chinese view, only to screen aggressive intentions. Yet, current Chinese thinking apart, there would be hope for the future if the Russians in particular could be brought to see the futility of spending vast sums in a useless arms race. Security does not lie in weapons, as Mr McNamara has said. The world has learned, on the contrary, that it recedes as the weapons multiply.