‘Pax Atomica’ Peace?

A fool and her money are soon parted. The sooner the better as far as “freezenik” Joan B. Kroc is concerned. Granted it will take some time to deplete Mrs. Kroc’s $500 million; meanwhile she will serve Soviet disinformationists well.

In less than three weeks, Mrs. Kroc will beat her breast in guilt as she attends “commemorative services” in Hiroshima while daughter Linda Smith leads the well-meaning but ignorant Mothers Embracing Nuclear Disarmament in Balboa Park. On that same day and three days later, I will pray silently (I guess I can do this as long as I’m not in school) that President Truman had the guts to order the use of America’s only two nuclear weapons to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This act saved my life in August, 1945.

Aug. 6, 1945, is a day I shall always remember. My rest and recuperation leave had ended and I was traveling to a new duty assignment in Atlantic City. I sat next to a sailor who had served for two years in the Atlantic Fleet. We did not talk much about our war experiences. I think he, like myself, was more concerned about our chances of surviving the war against Japan. But when we stopped in Philadelphia to change trains our concerns were dispelled, for there in six-inch-high headlines was: ATOM BOMB HITS JAPAN! We knew it was all over. Oh, how we celebrated. It is a wonder that the train stayed on its tracks as GIs and civilians danced in the aisles. While these two nuclear weapons killed some 250,000 people (including a few American POWS), it is estimated that at least 1 million U.S. troops and 10 times that number of Japanese would have died had there been a invasion.

Now, 40 years later, nuclear weapons keep the peace. I call it “Pax Atomica.” This fact speaks for itself.

EDWIN O. LEARNARD

San Diego