^Historian writes on war rationale
Nuclear war, even the limited use
3 f tactical nuclear weapons, is no
longer considered rational by a
growing number of policymakers
and analysts, says Dr. Roger Beau-
nont.
The reality of the situation is that
he superpowers are two gun-
fighters in a telephone booth,” said
Beaumont, military historian at
Texas A&M University. “Even if
one only has a .22 and the other has
.45, they’ll both be dead if they
shoot it out.’
This picture of looming global
catastrophe, and the reasons behind
it, is the subject of an article by
Beaumont appearing in the Feb
ruary issue of “Futures, a journal of
forecasting and planning published
in the United Kingdom and the
United States.
n
«.
c infe?
ween
(Yank
the
nifestd!
as
lumpli
now
le mi
a at actiiL
rg of
why
;d to
rer
to sou
re nalw
the b
; and
en tk
icir rij
very
endeau
he mtB
ly
e Amen
the cau|
/ suit
. Chisti
etter
he battalion
JESDAY, MARCH 8, 1977
Page 3
In “Nuclear Warfare: The Illusion
of Accurate Prediction” he charts
the drift of nuclear weapons away
from usefulness.
Beaumont notes that nuclear war
theory was born at the end of World
War II and has become snarled in
jargon and equations which have
made it hard for the public to
understand.
Such specialized terms, Beau
mont says, sugar-coat and obscure
the fact that not much could survive
a general thermonuclear war (GTE).
At present, there are in the
United States and Soviet arsenals
about 3,000 intercontinental ballis
tic missiles, 1,500 submarine-
launched missiles and 14,000
strategic warheads, in addition to
several thousand tactical nuclear
weapons.
“With these systems come built-
in errors, no matter to whom they
belong,” Beaumont said. “The mis
sile types have in some cases never
been field tested; many have in ex
cess of a quarter-million parts, and
the environment in which they
would operate in a nuclear war
would be far harsher than any test
situation.”
“Some estimate that the overall
effectiveness would be 40 per cent
or less,” he added. “That figm'e re
lates to accuracy. The weapons that
do not hit their targets accurately
would not vanish. They would im
pact somewhere and many would
detonate somewhere. It is those
weapons which seem to get easily
lost in GTE scenarios.”
“There is the natural tendency of
those with vested interests to de
fend systems against critiques of
their utility and the gap between
expectations and performance in
military field operations,” he said.
“Cavalrymen dreamed of charges
in the face of massed artillery, the
machine gun and airpower, and
kept their beloved arm in the field
half a century beyond its utility,”
Beaumont pointed out. “The air
mobile concept of the U.S. Army
has only been blunted and did not
founder on the loss of some 8,000
helicopters in Vietnam.”
This same type prejudice is being
built into official views and concepts
of a general nuclear war he ob
served. Some planners, he said,
have developed a habit of “. . . ac
cepting theory as reasonable as
sumption.”
“A nuclear war will develop along
lines unanticipated by planners and
controllers of the system,” he said.
“Remember that in American nu
clear testing, weapons yielded two
to five times the explosive power
expected by the experimenters.”
Beaumont has assembled a
catalog of events that might well be
set off by errant missiles which have
been generally ignored and which
cannot be tested.
CLASSES ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
7:30 p.m. Wednesday
EPISCOPAL STUDENT CENTER
902 Jersey
(southside of campus)
846-1726
Everyone Welcome
Fr. James Moore, Chaplain
COLOR LAB
Now you don’t have to send your color processing to an out-of-town lab. You save
RSS^I on time, handling, cost and convenience. We offer ektachrome processing, color
KSgi printing, slide duplicating and copy work. Rush service is available.
onal
e truth In
;t me ass
coverajt |
ter of 11
ate, but' i
ket asm
r motive
w is anil
lion was
or his it
ugh I
id not go:
ticular (
[ioned am
interests
- moreal
>u migl
<ee Co"!
on campus
March 9
Discuss your career interests with our
representative. Tell us what you’re look
ing for. We have a range of openings for
graduates in aeronautical, electrical, me
chanical engineering. Perhaps we ought
to get together.
See your
Placement Office for specifics.
NORTHROP
AIRCRAFT. ELECTRONICS. COMMUNICATIONS.
CONSTRUCTION. SERVICES.
An equal opportunity employer, m/f
barker
not
ographu
405 UNIVERSITY
846-5766
THE DEAN OF BEElft
(Or, was yeast really responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire?)
As your Dean of Beer, it is my scholarly
opinion that just knowing the one word for
beer is not enough. You must also know the
reasons why. Because only then will I,
Siglinda Steinfuller, be satisfied that you have
graduated from Remedial Beer Drinking, . r; ..
QUESTIONS:
Q: 1. The best water for beer comes from:
a) Big Duck Mountain.
b) Underground from Tijuana.
c) A small store in Macon, Ga.
d) None of the above
A: (d) No matter what you hear about
“naturally pure” waters, virtually all
brewers filter and further purify their
water. But Schlitz doesn’t stop there. They
filter their water and then filter it again.
So when they’re through, it’s purer than
the purest springwater.
2. Klages and Firlbeck III are:
a) Composers of famous beer drinking
songs like “I Left My Shoes in Heidelberg!’
b) Owners of the world’s largest unknown
brewery.
c) Serving time in Sonoma, Calif., for
impersonating Arnold the Wonder Seal.
d) More expensive barleys.
their beer superior flavor.
Ai
Q: 3. Hops are notorious for:
a) Their lack of intelligence.
b) Always getting to work late.
c) Losing their keys.
v ~keep fresh.
The fteshe^f frups make the best beer,
at’s why Schlitz vacuum-packs and
refrigerates their hops. So they’re as fresh
at brewing time as they are at harvest time.
Q: 4. The best adjunct to beer is:
a) Rice.
b) Corn.
c) Either rice or corn.
d) What’s an adjunct?
A: (c) Every American brewer uses rice or
corn to lighten the flavor of their beer.
This is called an adjunct. But Schlitz
knows how to use either grain inter
changeably. So they’re never at the mercy
of an unfavorable crop. And neither is the
taste of their beer.
Q: 5. The biggest misconception about yeast
is:
a) Carrying some in your pocket is good
luck.
’ b) It is good for hernias.
c) It was re^pppsible for the fall of the
•v ' Roman Empire. •
d) To ferment beer, all you have to do is
drop it in the vat.
A: (d) To make beer taste right consistently,
Schlitz believes the yeast has to be evenly
distributed during fermentation. That’s
why Schlitz gently stirs in their yeast. It’s
part of their Balanced Eermentation
process. And they’re the only American
brewer who does it.
Q: 6. Chill-Lagering is:
a) A popular German country and western
singer.
b) A Scandinavian winter sport played
without clothes.
c) A new ethnic TV comedy about the
owner of an ice cube factory.
d) The right way to age beer.
A: (d) When Schlitz ages beer, they age it
cold —very cold —down to 29.5 degrees.
It’s called Chill-Lagering. And it’s what
makes Schlitz crisp, clean and bright.
Q: 7. A mini-brewery is:
a) Hidden in a basement somewhere in
Greektown.
b) The result of trying to make Broken
Toe, Idaho, the beer capital of the world.
c) The right way to pretest beer
ingredients.
d) Both (a) and (c)
A: (c) Schlitz has a mini-brewery where they
test-brew the quality of the ingredients
that go into Schlitz —before they go into
Schlitz.
SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION:
Q: True or false, the one word for beer is
Duffelbrau.
iA: False. There is no beer called Duffelbrau.
Just as there is no beer like Schlitz. If you
answered this question true, perhaps you
should look into turkey ranching.
THERE’S JUST ONE
WORD FOR BEER.
I
AND YOU KNOW IT.