Evening star., 1953-11-15
Between Heaven and HeH

Thomas E. Murray, veteran member of
the Atomic Energy Commission, is an intelli-
gently frightened man. And periodically-ever
since last fall, when he witnessed an indescrib-
ably awesome hydrogen bomb test at Eniwetok
in the far Pacific-he has been trying, in a
series of speeches, to impart some of his anxiety
to the American people and the world at large
including Russia not least of ALL
The latest of these speeches, delivered the
other day at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh,
reaffirms Mr. Murray's strong personal convic
tion that the race of man is drifting willy-nilly
toward virtual extinction because 1t does not
comprehend the true nature of A-weaponS and
the H-bomb. In his opinion, the world today is
in the position of an individual who must
choose between heaven and he'll" But unfor-
tunately, as he has put it, teachers of religion
find it difficult in the extreme ito get across to
modern minds full sense of the existence OF
hell" and the same holds true for those-lke
reality that they have the makings of an
unspeakably terrible inferno in "the ugly awful
ness of all-out atomic warfare"
This fact this mass refusal to realize that
the world is literally walking through valley
of the shadow of DEATH has convinced Mr.
Murray that the prime task of the United States
and other nations is ito develop real aware
ness of today's alternatives and to recognize the
prophetic nature of the statement made in 1920
by H. G. Wells: Human history becomes more
and more race between education and
catastrophe"
Speaking for himself, and ruling out both
appeaSement and preventive atomic war as
folly of the first magnitude, Mr.. Murray has
declared his faith that if the international
community "can come to realize that this
planet, which once was paradise, may soon
become an annex of hell, it will find tre-
moudouS now-hidden reserves to develop
non-destructive solutions for the bitter prob
lens that separate the free world from the
Soviet" Indeed, according to his view even the
most hardened Marxist ideologist is enough of
a human being to be against global annihila-
ton, and hence human being with whom 1t
should be possible to work out agreements to
prevent such annihilation.
Considering the totally negative attitude OF
the Russians in the renewed disarmament
debate at the United Nations, Mr.. Murray may
seem to be bit of an optinist when he suggests
that they may one day permit the world to
make the right choice between heaven and
hell" But he is on sound ground in emphasiz-
ing that it is altogether dangerous to be fatal
istic about this matter and to assume that the
nuclear ornaments race must inevitably run 1tS
course until it ends in the death of all OF U.S.
His own formula for the future-harnessing the
atom for peace, a renewal of interallied atomic
cooperation, open demonstrations OF the fear
some power of A-weapons and the H-bomb, and
a ceaseless effort to negotiate an agreement
with the Kremlin-certainly makes much better
sense than the defeatist assumption that 1T Is
useless for mankind to try to save itself from
destruction.
Actually. because it is no longer merely the
oretical to,talk about the near-future end of the
world, the human race should feel an over
riding compulsion to save itself from what it
can now do to itself. That is the burden~ot Mr.
Murray's message. It is message addressed
not only to our own country but to Russia as
well, and to every other nation with power
enough to decide how this planet is to decide
between heaven and hell-between survival and
extinction.