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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!houxm!hou2b!marty
From: marty@hou2b.UUCP
Newsgroups: btl.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re (etc): BTL Takes the Lead
Message-ID: <148@hou2b.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Nov-83 14:10:08 EST
Article-I.D.: hou2b.148
Posted: Tue Nov 22 14:10:08 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Nov-83 04:13:59 EST
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 17


    The discussion of nuclear disarmament seems to have missed
the possibility that it might really be the US that is stalling
the negotiations.  After all, the USSR has a larger army than the
US.  Therefore we can't meet and beat them on the field.  Instead
(soon after WW-II, when no one else had nuclear weapons), the US
adopted the doctrine of "massive retaliation" (the threat that
aggression by any means would be met with everything we had,
meaning a nuclear strike).  When the USSR made a showcase pledge
of "no first use" of nuclear weapons, the US did not follow suit,
because that would have contradicted "massive retaliation."  In
fact, if all nuclear arms were multilateraly destroyed, we would
be helpless against the military might of the USSR.  That's why
the US does not seriously negotiate for nuclear disarmament, and
won't until and unless we build an effective army.

					M. B. Brilliant
					Bell Labs, Holmdel