On the Right

On Dead-Red

Many arguments are nowadays posed, and opinions influenced, by gaudy references to the extent of the devastation that would ensue upon a thermonuclear exchange in a third World War. I have heard lecturer after lecturer describe in macrocosmic terms, almost as if they took pleasure in describing all that gore, the meaning for the United States of a thermonuclear attack on us by, say, one hundred ten-megaton Russian missiles. I can hear the words of a man who spoke last week: “At least a hundred million deaths… starvation and contamination for most of the rest of the population… reduction of our economy to a primitive level….” I shall spare you more, especially the description of the physical appearance of an incinerated child in Hiroshima. There are few things more gruesome.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

On Dead-Red

Many arguments are nowadays posed, and opinions influenced, by gaudy references to the extent of the devastation that would ensue upon a thermonuclear exchange in a third World War. I have heard lecturer after lecturer describe in macrocosmic terms, almost as if they took pleasure in describing all that gore, the meaning for the United States of a thermonuclear attack on us by, say, one hundred ten-megaton Russian missiles. I can hear the words of a man who spoke last week: “At least a hundred million deaths… starvation and contamination for most of the rest of the population… reduction of our economy to a primitive level….” I shall spare you more, especially the description of the physical appearance of an incinerated child in Hiroshima. There are few things more gruesome.