Nuclear Holocaust

Jack Burby’s review (The Book Review, Feb. 8) and Norman Cousins’ book (“The Pathology of Power”) both ignore the fact that the threat of a nuclear holocaust has been and is being used by the Soviet Union to terrorize Americans into a posture of cowardice in which aggression by the U.S.S.R. goes largely unchallenged. The fact is that we must maintain parity in nuclear weapons systems with the Soviet Union while we work toward the goal of a workable disarmament agreement with them. Yet, at the same time, we must oppose the Soviet quest for world domination by their fostering of “wars of liberation” in the Third World.

President Eisenhower’s warning about the “military-industrial complex” came in a speech in which he also stated: “A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.”

EDWIN O. LEARNARD

San Diego