Nuclear Test Ban

Re “Clinton Will Press for Worldwide Ban on Nuclear Tests,” Aug. 12:

This is a laudable step in the right direction. But if laboratory experiments and computer simulations can guarantee that U.S. nuclear weapons will work, as Clinton claimed, what difference will a ban on testing make as far as nuclear weapons production is concerned? The next generation of U.S. nuclear weapons is on the drawing board. If the laboratory can maintain confidence that these weapons will work in warfare, the U.S. will keep on building or “modernizing” nuclear weapons in spite of a ban on testing. And the long-sought goal of complete worldwide nuclear disarmament will remain as elusive as ever.

A more effective step on the road to a safer world would be a global ban on the production of nuclear weapons, along with efforts to abolish such weapons. As long as nations keep such deadly devices in their arsenals, the grim prospect of nuclear war will haunt the human race.

JAMES C. MOSLEY

Laguna Hills