Weinberger publicly acknowledged tagon is now producing neutron Weinberger was evasive about when the decision to proceed with the neutron bomb had been reached. But New York Times reporter Richard Halloran wrote on li August that other officials, including spokesmen in the White House said that 'the decision made last Thursday...
A glance at the calendar explains Weinbergers's reluctance to pinpoint the date of the decision to go ahead with the weapons. Thursday, August, was the thirty-sixth anniversary of the US atomic bombing OI Hiroshima, first time nuclear weapons were used.
To date, the US military which dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki three days later, remains the only force ever to nave used nuclear weapons against peopie.
About 140,000 people died Hiroshima and 70.000 Nagasaki in the immediate aftermath of the US atomic bombings. A recent book, The Physical, Medical, and Effects of the Atomic Bombings, reports that the death toll in those cities rose by another 130.000 in the next tive years from the effects of radiation. Dying Hundreds of thousands of others were severely injured, many permanently, and to this dav people are still dving from traces tore cette be traced the effects atomic blasts.
The initial decision Iculi was made by President Carter, who argued that their limited blast made them ideal for use in Europe. But the intense opposition in Europe, who recognised that they would be the victims ol a immilca alomnic war , 1orced Carter to back down.
Instead of moving to full-scale manufacture of wcaoUIls Europe, Carter ordered Socialist Challenge 10 September 1981 MARCH printed from Intercontinental Press that the often descibed as the ultimate capitalist weapon - differ from other nuclear weapons in that they produce far higher levels of deadly short-lived radiation and lower levels of blast and heat, killing people while doing minimal damage to property.
the the Pentagon in 1978 to produce all the components of the neutron bomb and to store the parts in could be quickly assembled and 'deployed in Europe it the need arose.
The Reagan tion's 6 August decision was to begin assembling, neutron the tillery and heads trom the parts produced the under Carter's orders Caspar Washington claims that it Pen- needs the neutron bomb to offNeutron set the Warsaw numerical superiority in tanks in Europe.
Without the neutron bomb, the Pentagon argues, the forces of NATO in Western Europe could be overrun by a massive THERES A RUMOR GOING 'ROUND THAT WE WON..."
Soviet tank invasion.
But the neutron bomb is onone small part of a massive where they US nuclear against the Soviet Union.
The stated purpose of this buildup is to enable adminstra- military to reestablish, end of this decade, the absolute and overwhelming superiority over Pact's superiority the Pentagon's planners. nihilation of the USSR buildup aimed While today US enrecuve the Us by the nuclear the Soviet As long as the US military had an overwhelming nuclear aimed ovel DOVIC Union, life was much easier for ty. On US troops could intervene around the world, while warn- which ing the Soviets that any military tagon response to such interventions was the to be weapons Under President Carter, an arms buildup was initiated that reestablish overwhelming US nuclear superiori July 1980 . Carter Presidential Directive oracrea ine to develop plans and strategies for fighting and winning nuclear wars.
The underlying thesis of PD that the Pentagon should fight and win such wars by staging a first strike nuclear attack against the Soviet Union that would wipe out the bulk of nuclear force ground, while holding enough US weapons in reserve able to incinerate the USSR if it retaliated with any that had escaped destruction in the first strike.
But in order to implement Soviet Union with nuclear annihilation and thus gain a free interventionist policies around the world.
So the neutron bomb is part oI a whole series of weapons being added to the Pentagon's arsenal.
While the Pentagon claims that the neutron bomb is needca to counter a soviet lank In vasion of Western Europe, obvious v it would be equally et fective in neutralising Soviet tank forces during a NATO in vasion of Eastern Europe.
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OMEN FOR PEACE ON 10 AUGUST US Secretary of Defence