Evening star., 1961-07-02
The Time Is Now


President Kennedy really needs the
special study he has just ordered on
the question of nuclear teSting-a study
designed primarily, as he has explained,
to weigh the possibility of clandeStine
Soviet detonationS and to determine
how such cheating might affect our
national security.
This study is to be carried out by a
distinguished panel of experts to be
appointed by the Presidents Scientific
Advisory Committee. The inquiry prob
ably will last several weeks. And after
that, according to Mr.. Kennedy, its
findings will be subjected to a searching
review by himself, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and the National Security Council
"a process that can hardly fail to use
up considerable amount of additional
time before final decision is reached.
Meanwhile, even before the pro-
jected investigation begins, the sought
after answers, it seems to us, are already
available, and have been for many
months past. AS matter of fact, we'll
over year ago, the Joint Congressional
Committee on Atomic Energy looked
into the question quite thoroughly, and
after listening to four days of testimony
from more than 20 scientific and tech
nical expertS-all of high standing
arrived at conclusions casting grave
doubt on the whole idea of banning
nuclear tests. Representative Chet
Holif1eld, the committees chairman,
summed up the matter in these words:
1t appears from the testimony that for
the next several years at least it will not be
possible to detect and identify underground
bomb tests whose seismic signals record the
equivalent of non-muffled bomb explosions
Of 20 kilotonS or less.
Further, it appears that for this same
time period, it will not be possible to detect
muffled tests of 100 kilotons or more set off
deep underground in large cavities.
In other words, throughout the
nearly three years that have passed
all nuclear testing, the Russians could
have been setting off various kinds of
big and little underground nuclear ex-
ploSionS. And these blasts conceivably
could have given them a decisive lead
over us in revolutionary weaponry
ranging from the anti-miSSile missile
to the So-called neutron or "death-ray"
bomb. At any rate, since we have
fooliShly aSSented to an absolutely I'M
policed moratorium on detonations of
every type, we have gambled with our
very survival by trustfully assuming
that the Kremlin has not been cheating
on u.s.
This has gone on long enough
much too long, in our opinion, to war
rant another protracted study of the
issue. The time for decision is now-the
decision to resume American under
ground tests, and perhaps some in outer
space. Presumably the Presidents
60 slow approach to the problem is
governed in part by a desire not to
offend ill-informed international opin-
ion, but he ought not to let that con-
Sideration color his thought or make
him vacillate. AS DR.. Charles Allen
Thomas, topnotch nuclear scientist,
has said in recent speech:
We should forsake this adolescent atti-
tude Of continually worrying about what
people think of us. We should set about the
task OF protecting the peace. To do this we
will have to be strong, and to be strong we
need to resume our nuclear testing program.
To me, the logic is inescapable.
Indeed, as we see it, it is logic
so inescapable that our country should
not wait for another Study" before 1t
returns to atomic-hydrogen tests. Some
ignorant or Red-inspired people may
object, but so what? The thing that
counts in this supremely deadly busi-
ness is our existence as free nation
and that may well depend on re-
Suming nuclear testing right now.