JOHN M. FOWLER

"All men should strive to know before they die what they are
running from, and to, and why."

James Thurber's moral from the tale of the lemmings and their
confused dash into the sea seems singularly appropriate for
atom-age man. The great advances we have made in weapons
technology, coupled to the unchanging myopia of our several
national visions, are accelerating us down the lemmings' path.
If we are to stop short of nuclear annihilation, fear's closed eye
and apathy's glazed eye must be cleared by knowledge.

The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki previewed a
change in the nature of war. The radioactive ashes that fell on
the Lucky Dragon and the Marshall Islanders early in 1954
underlined the magnitude of this change. Radiological weapons
can now make entire countries the targets and continents the
battlegrounds. But with this change in the size of wars has come
no parallel growth in the statesmanship of nations. No improve-
ment in international politics comparable to that made in
weapons has appeared. Atomic and hydrogen bombs are, it
seems, but bigger guns to the men who use them.

We shall be confronted more and more with issues vitally af-
fecting mankind's chances of survival. Already we see the shape
they will take: the policy of deterrence with its commitment to
nuclear weapons, the building of "hardened" (H-bomb proof)

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