GAMES AROUSE- CONSTERNATION
It is now official. France has joined the nuclear "club," French Information Minister Alain Peyrefitte told the press October 15 that "France has begun to provide itself with an operational nuclear force," He refused to say how many Mirage IV's and A-bombs [Little ones, only four times the power of the one that destroyed Hiroshima,] had been turned over to the air force so far, saying this was a military secret,
However, according to the Revue de Défense Nationale [as quoted by the October 3 Paris-presse ltintransigeant] de Gaulle's coveted "force de frappe" is well ahead of schedule. Medium-range rockets will be ready by 1966-67 and about the same time France should have “its stock of H-bombs,"
A fleet of from 50 to 90 bomb-carrying planes are envisaged. In addition a fleet of five nuclear-powered submarines, each carrying 16 rockets with nuclear warheads, is planned, The first. one will be launched ‘in two or three years, ~ .
On October 22 Messmer placed before the Commission of National Defense the arms budget prepared by the Ministry of the Armed Forces, In 1964 an expenditure for equipment of 9,106,000,000 francs [about $1,821,200,000] is projected, . Out of this, 40 per cent is earmarked for nuclear arms.
The heads of the Army General Staff have already introduced nuclear weapons in their war games. In the just-concluded Jura exercise atomic
bombs were employed as "tactical" weapons by the French "Blue" forces against the simulated attack of the "Red" forces, Writing in the London’ Times of October 20, Stephen Coulter notes: .
"With consternation, watching Members of the Parliamentary Defence Committee saw this series of smoke clouds, each supposed to be an atomic explosion about the size of Hiroshima, rise up from the 'Red! area. After a. 15-minute interval, to let the radiation disperse, the 'Blue!' tanks and aircraft went in and mopped up the 'invaders,!
"Everything had been worked out beforehand and there was nothing improvised about this display, The officers who see this as the right way to use nuclear weapons appear to be dominant on the General Staff at the moment."
André Monteil, a senator who watched the exercises was told by a general that the seven tactical atom bombs used by the "Blues" was their reply to, two tactical atom bombs dropped by the "Reds."
"This, M. Monteil points out," the Times correspondent reports, "is an example of the dangers of nuclear escalation inherent in current French defence policy. If these things had really happened, an entire French pro~ vinee would have been wiped out fifteen minutes later and, in two hours, the whole of France would have ceased to exist,"
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