Book Review: International Atomic Policy (1945–55)
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205601100409 |
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| Author | W. Wallace Goforth |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
INTERNATIONAL
ATOMIC
PoLicY
(1945-55).
By Admiral
Elis
Biorklund.
1956.
(London:
Allen
&
Unwin;
Toronto:
Thomas
Nelson.
148pp.)
Here
we
have
a
precise,
selective
summary
of
all
that
the
average
scholar
needs
to
know
about
atomic
weapons
("H",
"A",
"h"
and
"a")
and
their
overshadowing
influence
on
political
and
strategic
policy
during
the
past
decade.
The
author's
aim
is
simple
and
direct,
but
his
solutions
are
much
less
acceptable
and
realistic.
He
seeks,
on
international
atomic
policy,
'to
cut
a
golden
section
through
the
(present,
proposed)
tangle
of
limitations,
prohibitions
and questions
of
control
. . .
to
ensure
that
the
result
will
be
a
uniform
limitation
of
the
possibility
of
offence
on
both
sides,
and a
uniform
and
im-
partial
exposure
of
secrets
by
both
East
and
West"
(the
italics
are
Bidrklund's).
Few
of
us
realize
that
about
a
million
persons
would be
needed
to
carry
out,
in
full,
the
inspection
and
control
duties
now
en-
visaged
under
the
basic
UN
plan.
In
principle,
therefore,
Bi6rk-
lund's
selective
"golden
section" makes
sense;
but
many
of
his
suggestions
for
carrying
it
out
do
not.
He
ranks
the
weapons
which
"are
most
inhuman
and most
likely
to
cause
injury
to
non-combatants"
in
a
nice
formula:
H
A B
C
h
a
(i.e.
large
"H"
and
"A"
weapons; bacteriological
and
chemical
weapons;
small
"h"
and
"a"
tactical
weapons). He
proceeds
to
recommend
that
we
seek
agreement to limit
and
control
the
H
A
B
C
weapons.
His
proposal,
is
not
only open
to weighty
scientific
criticism
but
also
renders
an
already
over-complicated
problem
still
worse.
It
is
the
"H"
and
"A"
(mainly
"H")
weapons
which
threaten
the
very
existence
of
life
on
the
planet.
None
of
the
others
do
so.
The
author
is
on
sounder
ground
when
he claims
that
"the
retention
of
the
present
balance
of
power"
is
"the
only
founda-
tion
on
which
a
(satisfactory)
agreement
can
be
based."
Yet
9
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