Nuclear Weapons Threat Not Over

* Your June 23 editorial, “Nuclear Specter Haunts Us Still,” is absolutely right. Even though START II and START III treaties require substantial nuclear reductions, the U.S. and Russia will retain enough nuclear power to destroy each other many times over. And there is no guarantee that nuclear weapons will never be used.

Joseph Rotblat, president of the Pugwash group of scientists and winner of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize, put it very well: “If we were stupid enough--or mad enough--to accumulate [70,000 nuclear warheads], who can assume that we would not be mad enough to use them, even if this would be global suicide?”

Nuclear weapons makers, particularly in the U.S., have never been deterred by the prospect of global suicide. To get around the 1963 Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty, for example, they began exploding nuclear bombs underground. To get around the recent Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (signed by more than 140 nations), they plan to conduct laboratory simulations of nuclear explosions--as always, preparing for nuclear war.

It is time to put an end to such madness. The ancient idea that peace is preserved by preparing for war has long been discredited. The U.S. could safely lead the world in getting rid of all nuclear weapons. And rather than preparing for nuclear war, we should cooperate fully with the U.N. in its efforts to resolve international disputes by peaceful means--before they escalate into major confrontations.

JAMES C. MOSLEY

Laguna Hills

* Please note the error in your editorial. Hans Bethe has been at Cornell University, not Columbia, since 1935.

MARY PALEVSKY GRANADOS

Oak View, Calif.