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Nuclear weapons, responsible deterrents

¹ Lubbock, Texas

My, my — seven pediatricians are arrested in Nevada while trespassing on government property and it's news of national import to our specialty, with more space devoted in the April 1987 AAP News than to the important subjects of AZT use in AIDS, preteen alcoholism and aspirin's link to Reye Syndrome. The benighted among us were enlightened as to how we, too, can become involved in the campaign against nuclear weapons (read: for unilateral disarmament).

All responsible pediatricians know that nuclear war between the "superpowers" would be unhealthy for children. To hold otherwise is, of course, absurd. Many of us are of the opinion, however, that if the history of the past two centuries teaches anything clearly, it teaches that the most effective way to assure war is to ignore, and then be forced to appease, expansionist totalitarian regimes. Winston Churchill saw this clearly. And he, like some of us, was thought overly anxious and alarmist, right up until Sept. 1, 1939.