Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HOP Vol XX Special-Number

1968 No 2

145-(07924)

a massive fact of the present world} already some years ago nuclear weapons had been stockpiled in such quantity that & fraction of them would suffice to annihilate our whole world.

All this means that nuclear war cannot be the instrument of resolving disputes.109; Moreover, thinking in theological categories, one can but agree wit!) the statement of Section III of the World Conference on Church ,,-s and Society: "Nuclear war is against God,s will and the greatest of evils. ^

Yet it is with the awareness of the terrible potentialities of nuclear warf are that the case of every possible war must be weighed. One cannot wage a "local" war without akirting the danger of causing a nuclear holocaust. Neither can one set off the awful potentialities of a wholescale nuclear war by limiting the use of nuclear weapons to the smaller types, the' so-called tactical weapons. The number of victims and the terrible consequences would even in this case make the risk too big for it would invite the ultimate danger of a full-scale confrontation. It is the terrible logic of war that every assault is followed by a counter-assault, until the resources are exhausted, and this'logic has the.potentiality to escalate every conflict to the final catastrophe of a nuclear war.1H J * *

These circumstances make it absolutely imperative to do everything to avert a nuclear catastrophe, H2) in the course of carrying out this task it is — although not the only but a primarily important - task to realize the goal of a general and total disarmament. The nuclear Weapons which threaten mankind with destruction ipust disappear. But also those weapons must disappear the employment of which may constitute the first step,the initial stage, leading to the final disaster.

b) The Disastrous Alternative cf Disarmament - the -Armament Race

Of the factors ?hich today make disarmament an extremely urgent task, we also mention the fact that, as experience áiows, the alternative cf disarmament is the armament race. The armament race only stops when it is displaced b.y disarmament. It is in the primary interests of humanity, from many points of view, that the present armament race ccmc to an end.

The result of the armament race, that is, the level of stockpiled weapons, is a constant threat to peace. History shows that every large-scale act of armament has so far led- to war. If the present armament race dees not stop then we have no guarantees whit ever to exclude the possibility that the terrible law of history operate again in our time, in the nuclear age. But even if we overlook what might be the ultimate consequence, the armament race even by itself is a very harmful activity. The armament race deflects vast economic assets from the needs of the populations in "the participating states,