Abstract

The Choice is Ours: Coexistence or No Existence

The recent changes in the technique of war have produced a situation which is wholly unprecedented. War has existed ever since there were organized states, that is to say for some six thousand years. This ancient institution is now about to end. There are two ways in which the end may come about, the first is the extinction of the human race, the second is an agreement not to fight. Neither the general public nor the majority of powerful statesmen have as yet realized that war with modern weapons cannot serve the purposes of any government in the world. If a great war broke out tomorrow each side would be successful in attack and unsuccessful in defense against H-bombs. This means that in the first days of such a war all the great centers of population on each side would be obliterated. Those who survived this first disaster would perish slowly or quickly as a result of the fall-out from radioactive cloud.