24 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
nuclear weapons can indeed be used, lowers the threshold for a nuclear doomsday. In its desperate bid to hold on to its slipping global supremacy the US might not hesitate to use nuclear weapons. Towards this end, it is trying to get the people of this world accept the idea of a limited nuclear war.
The Europeans are not amused by the idea of a limited nuclear war, which would destroy Europe, in order to save it from an alleged Soviet threat. They are vigorously resisting the deployment of neutron bonlbs and the modernization of NATO's nuclear forces. This resistance could go a long way in foiling the designs of US ^ imperialism for a nuclear war. Peace-loving people all over the world would be waiting anxiously for the success of this resistance movement. Those of us in the Third World should note that the nuclear plans of the Pentagon arc not confined to Europe alone. The US war machine has been openly talking about the use of nuclear weapons in the Arabia-Persian Gulf region as a last resort to defend its interests, in the event of any threat to those interests.6
1 Fred M Kaplan, "Enhanced Radiation Weapons", Scientific American (New York), Vol 238, No 5, May 1978, pp 44-51.
2 Robert L Arnett, "Soviet Attitudes towards Nuclear War: Do They Really Believe They can Win?" Journal of Strategic Studies (London), Vol 2, No 2, September 1979, pp 172-191.
3 G A Arbatov, "The American Strategic Debate: A Soviet View", Survival (London), Vol. 16, No 3, May/June 1974, pp 133-134.
4 Lord Zuckerman in Franklyn Griffiths and John C Polanyi (eds). The Dangers of Nuclear War, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1979, pp 164.
5 Desmond Ball, "Can Nuclear War be Controlled?" Aaelphi Papers (London), No 169, Autumn 1981.
6 "US Nuclear Strategy", 8 Days (London), 30 October 1981; Indian Express (New Delh'), 3 February 1980.