An e-mail:
watched part of dr. strangelove the other night and caught this bit of
dialogue. the russian ambassador has just told the U.S. president of the
doomsday machine. seemed timely.
(President) Muffley:
But this is absolute madness, ambassador. Why should you build such a thing?
(Russian Ambassador) DeSadeski:
There are those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep
up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace
race. And at the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing
machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we’d been
spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we
learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid
of a doomsday gap.
Muffley:
This is preposterous. I’ve never approved of anything like that.
DeSadeski:
Our source was the New York Times.