Evening star., 1951-09-19
Mr.. McMohon's Atomic PROPOSAL

VI. WCWUHOH ATOMIC FFOQOSQI
AS chairman of the Joint Congressional
Atomic Energy Committee, Senator Mcmahon
speaks from an exceptionally authoritative and
well-informed position when he speaks on the
subject of A-weapons Accordingly, even with
allowances for possible rhetorical exaggerations
and for the debatable character of his military
recommendations, there is every reason why the
Nation at large-and the world at large, for that
matter-should attach major significance to the
address he delivered yesterday.
It is an extraordinarily revealing address 1t
is also, in some respects sensationally challeng-
ing. And in its own way, although it deals with
a decidedly grim and portentous field of human
endeavor, 1t is highly reasSuring, and almost
optimistic in that it lends strong confirmation
to numerous past indications that the United
States is making spectacular progress in the
design, development and production of nuclear
armamentS, including the hydrogen bomb
progress of sort that promises not merely to
revolutionize warfare but to render it so terrible
that the men of the Kremlin would have to be
insane (Which they apparently are not) to en-
bark on full-scale armed aggression against the
free world.
This progress has so impressed Mr. Mcmahon
that he has not hesitated. to say that "the sky
is the limit on the number and variety of atomic
weapons which the United States can produce"
if it chooses to do on an al-out baSs-a
basis which the manufacture of single
A-bomb would cost less than a single tank. AS
for the weapons themselves, he is convinced that
they are such deterrent to aggression and
such paramount instrument of victory" that
the Nation should decide at once to undertake
their mass production. To that end he has
proposed that the Government spend $6 billion
a year on then-or about six times as much as
it is spending at present. At the same time
he has urged that this increase be offset by q
comparable decrease in the billions being ex-
pended on small arms, bullets, incendiaries,
hand grenades and the like" He has summed
up his argument for this policy by declaring that
For every dollar spent upon atomic defense we
can save five dollars on conventional defense"
and that THE first important savings can come
next year."
What Mr.. Mcmahon has emphasized through
out his address Is his firm belief that with real
atomic armed forces equipped with a sweeping
variety of A-weaponS cone model that takes the
place of thousand bazookas, another that makes
unnecessary a hundred depth charges, and yet
another that would substitute for INT stacked
as high as Pixies Peak) the United States can
buy security and peace at far less cost than with
its present conventional defenseS. And so hint
ing strongly at the kind of nuclear armamentS
within the Nations reach, he has come out
for the following: % An Army with an abun-
dance of atomic artillery shells, short-range
atomic guided missiles, Pathological Devices and
the support of light planes capable of hurling
atomic devastation on the enemy in battle posi-
tionS; (2) a Navy with nucear- powered sub
marines nuclear-powered aircraft carriers ready
to launch atomic attack planes on both strate
gical and tactical missions, ship-based atomic
artillery, Ship-baSed atomic guided missiles,
atomic mines, and target-Seeking atomic tor
pedoes; and 90 an Air Force with nuclear-
powered bombers, atomic missiles of every type,
the hydrogen bomb, and everything else needed
to destroy any enemys industrial heart
Quite obviously this proposal-aimed at cut
ting down on conventional weapons and the
number of foot soldiers-is as controversial as
it is novel, and its true validity can hardly be
assessed until our top defense and atomic author
tiles are heard on the subject Even so at very
least, Mr.. McMahon's address-which contains
a soberng reminder of the Kremlin's potentiah-
ties in this deadly tield-constitutes an impressive
challenge to orthodox military thinking in an
age when nuclear ornaments unquestionably are
upending all past concepts of strategical and
tactical warfare. Certainly, outspokenly
than any official statement has done before, it
has made clear that those armaments have revo-
lutionary variety-So much so that the Nation
may yet find it wise to spend Sc billion yearly
on them.
Moreover, in advocating such an expenditure.
Mr.. Mcmahon has made a telling point in en-
phaszing the wonderfully auspicious" fact that
the atomic material in our weapons stockpile
will last thousands of years and be a fabulous
asset for peace If war is averted. His own belief
is that the course he proposes-which includes
parallel action in the propaganda field and in
the United Nations in an effort to detach the
Russian people from the Krennln and bring about
universal disarmament-wl avert war, or at
least insure the survival of the free world If
comes. He may be wrong, but still his views
deserve the most careful attention.