Caldicott on Disarmament

Political and industrial preparation for nuclear war is a radical notion. True conservatives are those who wish to preserve the ecosphere including human existence. On April 6, I gave a passionate speech to support (U.S. Senate Democratic candidate) Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, in which I used the metaphor of the consummate peacemaker to describe the dynamics of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s arms control process (Part I, April 8). In the last three years he has presented the U.S. Administration with proposals of the most significant meaning including:

--A unilateral 18-month moratorium on nuclear testing.

--Called for a freeze of all nuclear forces in the Mediterranean.

--Suggested major Soviet troop and tank reductions in Europe (500,000 men on both sides).

--Suggested major power discussion of naval arms control worldwide.

--Agreed to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan over nine months.

--Entered the INF agreement requiring surrender of twice as many missiles and four times the number of Soviet warheads than the U.S.

--Proposed elimination of half of all Soviet strategic weapons.

--Proposed a treaty banning all weapons from space.

--Committed continued Soviet observance of the ABM Treaty.

--Agreed to unprecedented verification measures including Soviet openness to access of resources and inspection.

--Admitted inadequacy of previous Soviet military budget figures saying more appropriate data will be forthcoming.

--Offered a three-stage plan for complete global nuclear disarmament by the year 2000.

These initiatives are often ignored, tabled, or labeled propaganda by the Reagan Administration. Gorbachev continues to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile. The analogy is accurate, not left wing.

In my speech I referred to (former Assistant Secretary of Defense) Richard Perle as a war criminal. In 1980 when President Reagan was elected, the U.S. and Soviet Union were negotiating 14 arms control treaties, some almost complete. Perle organized with others an end to all 14 negotiations. Throughout his six-year Pentagon term he consistently blocked all significant attempts to negotiate nuclear weapons treaties and his colleagues named him “the Prince of Darkness.”

He single handedly convinced Reagan at the last minute not to sign the agreement at Reykjavik to eliminate nuclear weapons bilaterally.

Fortunately for the world, Secretary of State George Shultz has in his wisdom prevailed over Perle and his colleague, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, and he now is effectively and intelligently working with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Gorbachev on significant nuclear weapons reductions.

I called the Department of Defense the Department of Annihilation. In truth, the Coast Guard defends the shores of the U.S. and the Immigration Department defends the northern and southern borders. Soviet ICBMs are the only military threat to the U.S. They can and will be eliminated bilaterally over the negotiating table. Nuclear winter with global extinction could be induced with fewer than 10,000 H bombs. Yet the U.S. owns over 30,000 and the Soviets over 20,000, and both countries practice and exercise daily for nuclear war. Therefore, the U.S. and Soviet Union each maintain departments of global annihilation in the name of national defense.

I said the CIA kills people in the name of anti-communism. It initiated the killing of 500,000 Indonesians in the ‘60s and approximately 2 million people in Cambodia, instigated U.S. involvement in Vietnam and has orchestrated the killing of over 200,000 people in Central America since 1980. This data comes from ex-CIA agents, news reports and congressional committees.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Truth is God.” Accurate diagnoses precede effective treatment of disease processes.

My speech described in non-euphemistic terms some of the etiological causes of the killing addiction which infects our planet.

HELEN CALDICOTT

Regina, Saskatchewan

Canada