JOHNSON OFFERS THE BEGINNING OF "DISARMAMENT"
The "State of the Union" message delivered each year by the president of the United States to Congress is a ritualistic exercise in ‘capitalist political mumbo jumbo that generally draws little serious attention, This year, however, the New York Times found a "major development" in the. ghost-written. document. read. by Johnson January 8. This was a "striking cutback" of twenty-five percent in the production of enriched uranium and the closing of four plutonium piles.
Taking the hint from “Johnson, the capitalist press of the United States sought to parlay 1 this into a ‘ehallenge" to the Soviet Union to _ begin’ "disarmament. at
However, in Looking over his right shoulder toward Goldwater and other reactionaries eager to prove that he has gone "soft on Communism," Johnson took all the punch out of his "challenge" to Khrushchev by. affirming that in 1964 "we will be better prepared than ever to" -- ag he put it -- "defend the .cause of freedom. .
And Johnson really did not propose to cut down the U.S, stockpile of nuclear weapons or his personal power to press the fatal button,
In 1965 it was revealed that the Pentagon has a stockpile capable of utterly destroying the Soviet Union -r which occupies one-sixth of earth's land surface -- eight hundred times over.
According to official circles in Washington, the rate of production of nuclear weapons increased fifty percent during the past three years, ,
It is quite clear that the production of fissionable material, which occurs at a geometric ratio, has reached the point where it offers an increasing storage problem.
Johnson's publicity move thus involves little more in actuality than a slowing down of one of the feed channels in the belt line producing nuclear weapons,
In addition to these considerations it should be noted that the
major effort of the Pentagon has for some time not been directed at . sheer quantitative accumulation of nuclear weapons. It has been con centrating on miniaturization. Atomic warheads have been reduced in size to fit artillery. Perhaps the U.S. armed forces now have them smait enough to fit bazookas.
What the American militarists are aiming at is the tactical use of nuclear weapons and they are busily equipping all the armed forces ~- from planes and submarines to the artillery and infantry -- with nuclear weapons that can be used.this way technically.
This is wholly in accordance with the traditional way in which the U.S, has entered world wars -- that is, equipped with thse very latest in weaponry. The main difference is that in previous cases the re-equipment was done after the war started, now it is to be com= pleted before it has begun. 7
"“TRREVOCABLE"