“Such a war will not last long, and nothing will follow it”
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October 27, 1962 went down in history as “Black Saturday”: as part of the naval blockade of Cuba, the US Navy dropped a series of flares on a Soviet submarine armed with a nuclear warhead. This episode was the most dangerous moment of the Caribbean crisis – the world was literally in one motion of the hand from a nuclear war. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the catastrophe that did not happen, the reflections of public intellectuals for more than 50 years on how a nuclear war threatens humanity have been collected.
one
It is clear that it is pointless to talk about victory in a big thermonuclear war – this is collective suicide.
Andrei Sakharov, physicist and human rights activist, 1983
2
Even if the military advantages of attacking enemy targets were not deliberately limited, I suspect that most governments would still prefer to comply with such restrictions. Almost no one wants to go down in history as the first to kill 100 million people.
Herman Kahn, economist, 1960
3
A curious sight: a man, Homo sapiens, a divine creature, as they say, is seriously considering going underground to avoid the consequences of his own stupidity. <...> Ridiculous if our scientific advancement makes us live with moles underground.
William Fulbright, US Senator, 1943
four
Nuclear war is not able to protect either the country or the system. Even the most experienced ideologue will not be able to distinguish the ashes of capitalism from the ashes of communism.
John Galbraith, economist, 1986
5
If nuclear bombs with a total yield of 2500 megatons are dropped on the United States <...> on the first day there will be 36 million killed and 57 million wounded, and on the sixth day there will be 72 million killed and 21 million wounded. Western Europe, including the UK, is likely to suffer more than the United States due to higher population density. The survivors, the hungry, those who have lost their health and are unable to give birth to healthy children, people should, apparently, take comfort in the fact that such is the fate of the Russians. <...> Which of these can be regarded as a victory?
Bertrand Russell, philosopher, 1954
6
We now have so many atomic bombs that we can not only destroy life on Earth, but also make the Earth go out of orbit, sending it, empty and cold, forever into infinity. One thing is now quite clear to me: science is the enemy of man.
Luis Buñuel, director, 1982
7
Leaving such explosives at the disposal of people while their morale and intellectual level is declining is like handing out guns to all the inhabitants of a prison, and then saying that you hope to “secure peace” by doing so.
John R.R. Tolkien, writer, 1945
eight
We now know that a nuclear war will destroy our planet. It is unbelievable that some governments – fleeting political figures – arrogated to themselves the right to stop history at their discretion.
Martha Gellhorn, journalist, 1959
9
Evolution is a long process, and two centuries is not enough to give rise to homo technikos. The atomic destruction of our technological society in a fit of quarrelsomeness would be a catastrophe, even if there were millions of survivors. Their familiar environment will disappear, and Darwin’s demon will destroy them without a trace.
Isaac Asimov, writer, 1976
ten
In our new age of terrifying, deadly devices, the first big war of aggression will be unleashed by petty button-pushing suicidal lunatics. Such a war will not last long, and nothing will follow it. There will be no conquerors, no conquests. Only the charred bones of the dead on a desert planet.
William Shearer, journalist, 1960
eleven
What if it’s some kind of nuclear accident? Or some psychic who is obsessed with atomic weapons, like a crazy major? Or will the rocket fly away by mistake? The United States does not seem to be going to react to a single nuclear explosion somewhere, but the sudden panic that happens when, for example, the lights go out, can change this and force the decision maker to abandon all verified, worked out, consistent steps.
Stanley Kubrick, director, 1967
12
A bomb, if detonated above ground or underwater, sends radioactive particles into the upper atmosphere. They gradually descend and reach the earth’s surface in the form of deadly radioactive dust or rain. No one knows how far such deadly radioactive particles can spread. But experts unanimously argue that the war with the use of hydrogen bombs may well destroy the human race. It can be feared that if a large number of hydrogen bombs are used, a general death will follow – sudden only for a minority, and for the majority – slow and painful.
Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell Manifesto, 1955
13
We have lost a sense of higher order, things will get worse and worse for us, and perhaps the culmination will be a nuclear catastrophe – the destruction predicted in apocalyptic texts. Only our apocalypse will be absurd and absurd, because it is not associated with any transcendence.
Eugene Ionesco, writer, 1984
fourteen
Dropping an atomic bomb (or polluting the seas) is a war not only against those who maintain neutrality, but against the entire planet.
Umberto Eco, writer, 1997
fifteen
We were once told that airplanes “abolished the borders”, but in general the borders were erased only after the airplane turned into a serious military equipment. Radio was once expected to enhance international understanding and cooperation; it turned out that it became a means of isolating countries from each other. The atomic bomb will perhaps complete this process by definitively depriving the exploited classes and peoples of any ability to fight.
George Orwell, writer, 1945
16
They want to convince people that a nuclear war can be limited, they want to reconcile them with the idea that such a war is admissible. But this is a direct deception of the peoples! After all, a “limited” nuclear war, say, in Europe would mean the certain death of European civilization from the very beginning.
Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1981
17
The enormous amount of radiation that would be released in a nuclear war could cause such profound changes in the human gene pool that it would be difficult for our future generations to recognize human beings.
Helen Caldicott, physician, activist to prevent atomic war, 1980
eighteen
Man now holds in his hands the power to destroy all forms of human poverty along with all forms of human life.
John Kennedy, President of the United States, 1961
19
In fact, only insects, not humans or other majestic species, are capable of surviving the nuclear age. Cockroaches, an ancient and hardy species, will occupy the habitats of a stupid person and will compete only with other insects or bacteria.
Bentley Glass, geneticist, 1961
twenty
I have never met a person who would build a bomb shelter and feel protected in it. I have never met a modern military man who does not realize that in the atomic age, military victory is an outdated concept.
Mildred Lisette Norman, pacifist, peace activist, 1983
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