This Nuclear Age
11/09/2007

“Peace is the One Condition of Survival in this Nuclear Age“
-Adlai Stevenson, Ambassador to the United Nations 1960-1965

Column by Marilyn Aligata

In September, I attended the Nuclear Weapons Conference at the Albert Schweitzer Institute on the campus of Quinnipiac University in Hamden.

This Conference reinforced my beliefs and motivated me to raise educate, so I urge ask you to become more aware of the danger of nuclear war and act on prevention. It isn‘t a matter of me being a Pollyanna or too idealistic, it s a matter of life and death. The Keynote speaker, former president Jimmy Carter, criticized the United States and other nations for doing so little to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The Bush Administration, he said, is allowing the United States to supply India with nuclear weapons despite India s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow the Atomic Energy Agency to inspect all of its nuclear facilities. Carter said Non-Proliferation restraints are being abandoned. The U.S. has become a prime obstacle to preventing nuclear proliferation by rejecting treaties and is now spending billions on a global shield against ballistic missiles. The arms race has escalated. He scoffed at pledges made at the United Nations recently by Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that his nation will not use nuclear power for weapons. In India, Pakistan and North Korea, the agreements we made led to nuclear weapons in each case, he said.

I believe that as long as the United States makes no effort to enforce Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaties and disarm nuclear weapons the nations we isolate and threaten will want them too. These countries will stop wanting nuclear weapons when we assure them that nuclear wrnational Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians for Social Responsibility, The Institute of Peacemaking, the International Assoc. of Peace Messengers and Global Business Consultants who presented a most unique audience participation event - Peace Games. We were given a situation i.e.: the Iraq War and asked to select a solution out of four possibilities. This led to the next solution and so on. We were immediately aware of the choices and decisions our government makes and the potential out comes of each decision. A glaring example is - The War in Iraq. Look what we have done to the Middle East by attacking Iraq. We provoked a conflict that we have no control over and de-stabilized the entire area. Not to mention, increasing numbers of our armed forces and Iraqi civilians who are wounded, dead and dying.

I was most inspired by Jonathan Granoff, Pres. of Global Security Institute, Co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Force on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Senior Advisor to the National Security Committee of the International Law Section of the American Bar Assoc. This speaker has athored two incredibly deep and moving papers: Nuclear Weapons, Ethics, Morals, and Law and Nuclear Weapons and Reverence for Life.

The most emotional part of the Conference came in the evening when two representatives from The Hibakkusha-Movement, the only national organization of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan spoke. These men, who as children, survived the A-bombs being dropped on their homes, lost most members of their families. It is unthinkable that children should have to experience such appalling death and destruction. The men are traveling around the U.S. now talking to people and trying to convince them it should never happen again. People of this Movement marched in New York city in 1978 carrying signs that read - Zero Nuclear Weapons! Stop the Arms Race! I am sorry the U.S. developed and deployed such a gruesome and deadly weapon into the world.

The new millennium began with 32,000 nuclear bombs possessed by eight nations containing 5,000 megatons of destructive energy. This number varies from 20,000 to 50,000 depending on what you read, but it s too many and they are too destructive to remain. They should be abolished!

The Conference had me thinking of when and why I first became involved in the anti-war, peace activist movement. Allow me to reflect back - Soon after the Cuban Revolution, the USSR became concerned about the political orientation. There was fear of military intervention by the United States in Cuba. This was a major focus of the new president, John Kennedy, when he took office in January 1961. In April of that year, the threat of invasion became real when a force of the CIA-trained Cuban exiles opposed to Castro landed at the Bay of Pigs. Cuba s military forces quickly defeated the invasion. Castro was convinced the U.S. would invade again and shortly after the Bay of Pigs, Castro declared Cuba a socialist republic. This chain of events and the U.S. placement of nuclear missiles in Turkey, so close to the Soviet Union, led to Nikita Khrushchev authorizing construction of nuclear missiles to within 100 miles of the United States.

In response to the fear of a Cuban invasion, Russia s launching of nuclear missiles from Cuba became a real possibility. The Kennedy Administration, in February 1962, launched an economic embargo against Cuba. Direct military attack was considered; Air Force Gen. Curtis Lemay Presented a pre-invasion bombing plan in September, while spy flights and minor military harassment from the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were the subject of continual Cuban diplomatic complaints to the U.S. government. To those around during the “Duck and Cover“ exercises, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nikita Krushchev‘s shoe pounding rants at the United Nations, in October 1962 a nuclear war between the USSR and the United States almost happened but, the U.S. convinced the Societ Union to take their missiles out of Cuba. Source - Wikipedia, The Internet Encyclopedia.

I was horror-struck to think a nuclear attack could happen in America to my family and friends. I pictured my husband and little girl being charred beyond recognition in the fiery blast of A-bombs. I was terrified and I wanted to do something so I joined Civil Defense. I was told of the danger of A-bombs being dropped in America. I was trained to go into public schools and teach children to get under their desks to protect themselves from atomic blasts. I began to doubt what I was being taught, I decided I did not want to prepare for a nuclear war, I wanted to work to prevent one. I marched, I protested, and I wrote, etc. all to no avail as the world is many times more dangerous than it was in 1962. That was forty-five years ago. If it wasn‘t for the patience and constant communications between the Kennedy administration and Nikita Khrushchev, we may have had a nuclear war on our soil.

Now Russia Pres. Putin‘s actions have a disturbing parallel to the Cold War, which officially ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Another arms race? Putin has approved a $200 billion armament plan to revamp and modernize the military. I can understand why he would want to upgrade his military.......he is in a Nuclear Arms Race with the U.S.

Robert Gales, Defense Secretary cited the uncertain paths of Russia and China in urging congress to adopt Pres. Bush‘s $463.1 billion defense budget. Bigger and bigger and bigger until it has a life of its own and we are doomed. I ask you to see the danger developing and do something.

We may not be as fortunate next time there is a missile crisis. The American people must insist the presidential candidates talk of and enforce if elected, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaties to start......We still have a chance but we must act soon or we will blow it - literally!

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