A pamphlet jointly published by Solidarity and Common Wealth. Text originally put forward for discussion at a Common Wealth weekend school in Manchester, October 1963.
PDF courtesy of Splits and Fusions Archive.
The Third World War began twenty years ago. It continues and extends. Nuclear weapons are not and will not be its active agents. They set the framework within which this new kind of war is fought.
The argument outlined
In this pamphlet we will argue:
- that a resort to nuclear weapons, as a deliberate act of national policy, is only conceivable on the basis of the 'first strike' theory.
- that in neither East nor West will the rulers embark on such a course.
- that the very word 'war', to describe an exchange of nuclear weapons, is both meaningless and misleading.
- that it is improbable that a so-called international crisis (e.g. Berlin, Cuba) will culminate in an exchange of nuclear weapons and hence in world annihilation.
- that is not to say that nuclear weapons will never be used. An accident is possible.
- that war, in the real sense of the word, is on. World War III began while World War II was still being fought. It is a new kind of war and despite the much vaunted Test Ban Treaty the methods of waging it will steadily develop.
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