The voters in about ten states will be confronted on November 2 with a ballot question on whether or not they support a Nuclear Weapons Freeze. Their answers will be a legal nothing; they have no more legal effect than the responses you might give to a Gallup or Harris pollster.
The referenda are a propaganda ploy and a fraud on the voters. They are designed to deceive gullible people into thinking that voting for a Nuclear Freeze will prevent nuclear war; and then, if the referenda pass, their sponsors will say, “Look, Look! The American people want the United States to lay down its weapons and refuse to build any more.”
No peace movement has ever prevented war. The freezeniks cannot cite a single example in 6,000 years of recorded history when a peace movement or a weapons-freeze movement ever prevented war. That’s because a peace movement promotes peace only in peaceful countries, but promotes war in aggressive countries.
On the other hand, history affords us many examples of peace movements starting wars. The weapons-freeze movement of the 1930s, culminating in the Munich (“peace in our time”) agreement, stopped the arms race in the peaceful countries (England and Europe) and encouraged the arms race in the warlike countries (Nazi Germany and Japan). The weapons freeze of the 1930s started World War II.
Nuclear Freeze won’t protect us against any of the threats of the nuclear-space age. It won’t protect us against the Soviet weapons overkill; they already have enough nukes to kill 100 million Americans several times over. It won’t protect us against the Russians cheating on their agreements; they always have and they always will.
Nuclear Freeze can’t protect us against international terrorists such as Gaddafi or Castro. It cannot protect us against accidental war — against some Dr. Strangelove pushing the button. It cannot protect us against fallout or blast.
Nuclear Freeze can’t protect us against Mutual Assured Destruction (the MAD doctrine). Nuclear Freeze provides absolutely no defense against attack by any enemy.
Nuclear Freeze can’t protect us against the danger posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons among a dozen countries. Although those who watched the 1980 presidential TV debate couldn’t believe Jimmy Carter when he said that proliferation was Amy’s principal worry, it nevertheless is a concern to those who do understand what it means.
Nuclear Freeze won’t stop the arms race; the Russians will go right on racing. Nuclear Freeze would send this signal to the Russians: “Brezhnev, keep racing. America is giving up.” That’s why a nuclear freeze increases the risk of nuclear war.
The Nuclear Freeze people want to turn the clock back to the pre-nuclear age. They are trying hard to “put the genie back into the bottle.” They are like the nations that tried to defend themselves with bows and arrows after gunpowder was invented. That won’t work; people who try it are living in a bygone era.
Nuclear Freeze is based on the threat of inevitability and the psychology of fear. Americans should not succumb to that kind of scare propaganda. Nothing is inevitable except death and taxes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned us, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
America is the great “ban— o” nation. We sent a man to the moon and have already conquered technological challenges of staggering and sophisticated size. We should not let the fearmongers tell us that the human race is doomed and that it is impossible to defend ourselves.
Fortunately, American technology is the best in the world. We can build a defense against nuclear weapons that will preserve American freedom and independence. The “High Frontier” system of space platforms (like the space shuttle) is only one of many answers to the threat posed by Soviet nuclear weapons.
A defensive system such as “High Frontier” can prevent war and save lives. Nuclear Freeze, on the other hand, can’t do either one.
Those who are urging a freeze on U.S. weapons are trying hard to co-opt the high ground of morality. But it won’t wash. The Bible gives us the key to peace in Luke 11:21: “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.” That’s why our Founding Fathers gave the U.S. Government the constitutional obligation to “provide for the common defense.”
