Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-11-01
Atomic Clouds

The International Committee for the
Study of European Questions has not
wandered into the realm of sheer fantasy
in reporting to the leaders OF the Western
democracies that 1t has evidence of a
Soviet effort to produce lethal atomic
clouds" for use In case of war. The evil
dence itself may or may not be fiimsy,
but the committee-which is made up of
distinguished individuals like former
French Premier Paul Reynaud-certainly
has not suggested the impossible. On the
contrary. it has pointed to something that
is actually quite as believable as it is grim.
As for believability, certain significant
facts have long since indicated that the
atom, as military instrument, may in
volve deadly devices in addition to the
the famous Smyth report on our wartime
atomic project dropped the grisly little
hint that chain-reacting nuclear pile, in
the process of hssion, gives OF radioactive
by-products that could be used as "a par
ticularly vicious form of poison gas" small
quantities of which might be sufficient
to make large area uninhabitable."
Since the publication of the Smyth re-
port, moreover, there has been more than
a little unofficial but fairly informed
American speculation regarding the posi-
but also Of giant radioactive clouds. These
clouds, according to the spectators, would
not involve explosions. They would be
silent weapons; they probably could be let
loose in a way that would make it difficult
to detect and counter them in advance of
their arrival over target; and they would
be likely to- spread humiliation and linger-
ing corrosion over vast expanses of ter
ritory.
Past talk along this line may have been
exaggerated, Of course, but there can be
little doubt that 1t has had at least some
basis in fact. Certainly, foundation for
report, and also in our constant official
references to atomic ,oeapons. The plural
usage must have some significance. The
bomb itself-which incidentally We have
made more deadly since Hiroshima-is
singular. So when our own Government
makes point Of placing the little IS" at
the end Of weapon" there Is reason to
believe that our nuclear arsenal includes
other things as well, whatever they may be.
BY the same token, II we have atomic
weapons in addition to the bomb, we can
be sure that the Russians are sparing no
effort to arm themselves with similar
devices, whether canned radioactive clouds
or poison gases. The report of the inter-
national committee thus makes sense. In
the nuclear ornaments race now going on,
the peoples OF the world are not being told
the nature Of the ass-destruction instru-
ments in production, but everybody can be
sure Of one thing: If there Is ever again
total war, the slaughter will be I'M
imaginably terrible-perhaps enough so to
constitute the virtual suicide OF the
human race.
All this adds up to hackneyed observa-
tion-the great cliche of the atomic age.
But that does not make 1t any the less
true. Although we may be far from at
tanning one, lasting peace has become
indispensable to the survival of civilized
mankind. The alternative is q war in
which every nation would face the risk of
going up in the smoke Of . radioactive
cloud.