Duping the masses It seemed like a suitable case for euphoria. Few would want to believe that the media and people have been conned. But that is what the arms think-tank, the Oxford Research Group, believes. The Reagan-Gorbachev summits, the INE agreement and talk of 50 per cent cuts in strategic arms have lulled the public into a false sense of security. Meanwhile, decisions are being made in NATO and the Politburo which, if they were known to and understood by the public, would certainly cause profound alarm .
Modernization is the guise under which the superpowers are continuing to build up arms.
And both NATO and Warsaw Pact modernization programmes have continued unchecked - away from the media s critical gaze. It is estimated that by the mid-1990s there will be 400 extra nuclear weapons in the UK, despite the INF deal which eliminated cruise missiles. The package has never been debated or approved by the parliaments of the vast majority of NATO countries. Nor do NATO heads of state play as large a role as the public might imagine. In the words of Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and of government meet only to go through the tedious motions of reading speeches drafted by others, with the principle objective of not rocking the boat.