Many thanks to John Raby (Monitor Opinion, July 29) for reminding us of the coming 74th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the ongoing hope that such nuclear destruction will never happen again.
As Raby rightly points out, our 74 years of hope has so far been sustained by pure luck (exactly the view of former commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, Gen. Lee Butler and more recently former secretary of defense William Perry).
Raby shows us eight horrendous examples (among hundreds) of nuclear “near misses,” most since the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and many since the end of the Cold War (1990). This terrifying, little-known nuclear history was revealed in Eric Schlosser’s Command and Control (2013). It presents a disturbing picture of military inter-service nuclear rivalry, corporate greed, national fanaticism and often disregard for public safety.
Just a few words about this important book crafted around the little known 1980 Damascus, Ark., missile accident:
The accident involved a Titan II missile (one of 54 in hardened launch silos over 100 feet deep) with a 9-megaton warhead (the largest U.S. warhead ever with a force yield of 600 Hiroshima nukes). At the Damascus site, a mechanic near the top of the missile carelessly dropped a heavy wrench, which fell 70 feet down the silo and punctured the fuel tank. Eight hours later, despite efforts to contain highly flammable fuel vapors, the missile exploded. The launch complex was covered in fire and toxic gases, and the warhead was catapulted 1,000 feet into the air. It landed nearly a quarter-mile away, largely intact.
Miraculously, there was no thermonuclear explosion – “miraculous” because the warhead had long been identified by the designer, Sandia Labs, as one of the “least safe” in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, i.e. one of the most likely to detonate in “abnormal environments,” such as intense heat.
Sandia had petitioned the Pentagon for over a decade to address the safety issue or retire the weapon. It was finally retired in 1987.
With the current renewed Cold War, the chances of sustaining our post-Hiroshima hopes are not good, not without international action led by the United States. Sadly, the main nuclear powers (the United States and Russia, with 90% of the nuclear weaponry) are moving away from weapons reductions and disarmament negotiations. Both nations, but especially our own, seem bent on abandoning important treaties.
For example, the Trump administration recently pulled out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which removed nearly 3,000 missiles from Europe, likely preventing nuclear war. Last year, the United States dangerously quit the Iran seven-party nuke deal. And we (and Russia and China) are determined to continue “modernizing” all our nuclear weapons systems, adding intermediate range missiles in Europe and “low yield” nukes (really safer to fight with?) to the 13,000 we (and Russia) currently have.
The other eight nuclear nations, including China, have “only” 1,000. But that will likely change, along with our chances of sustaining our post-Hiroshima luck if the major nuclear players, especially the United States, don’t adhere to their nuclear disarmament obligations required under 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the World Court has ruled – and moral sense necessitates.
And this brings me to the 2020 presidential election. The Democrats have some fine candidates, most with good sense, rightly critical of corporate power and greed, mindful of the need to narrow the wealth gap between rich and poor, and they all take global warming with great concern, unlike our current “leader.”
Trump doesn’t deserve another term because of his lack of climate concern alone. But most worrying to me is that many of the Democratic candidates may not grasp the seriousness of this other global threat – nuclear war.
To date I have heard very little campaign discussion about it. A large part of the silence may be due to lack of knowledge, and of the related issue of our bloated military excesses as well. (Does the U.S. military really need to spend five and eight times as much as China and Russia spend? And do we really need 800 military bases abroad to surround and intimidate our rivals? And so many wars and military interventions, too often outside the bounds of international law?)
I urge all who see nuclear weapons as a dangerous problem that needs the guidance of a knowledgeable and competent U.S. president to talk to some of these candidates to see if they agree that the United States needs to encourage and move toward nuclear disarmament as set out in the NPT treaty (esp. Art. VI), a treaty that we and the Security Council’s other “permanent five” (all nuclear weapon states) have pledged to carry out.
For those who need more understanding of the nuclear issue, I recommend Schlosser’s book. And I encourage all to attend N.H. Peace Action’s Hiroshima/Nagasaki remembrance gathering on Aug. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in front of the State House.
(Ray Perkins Jr. of Concord is professor of philosophy, emeritus, at Plymouth State University and vice chairman of the Bertrand Russell Society board of directors.)