Living with Mega-Death

• Share

(13 of 13)

interest in avoiding war should, and probably would, remain more powerful than the tensions generating conflict. The only thing harder to imagine than a permanent reconciliation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. is a rationalization on the part of either nation for taking the risk of all-out war.

Like the complex interactions within the atom, the volatile human forces at work on the planet earth may be able to maintain their dynamic equilibrium indefinitely. That will unquestionably require ever increasing wisdom and skillful management, as well as luck. Many more Americans are now beginning to think seriously about what used to be called the unthinkable. Insofar as this new wave of concern and activism about the single biggest threat facing mankind does justice to the complexity of the problem, and steers clear of simple-minded pseudo solutions, it may foster some of the prerequisites for survival. In which case, so much the better.

—By Strobe Talbott. Reported by Bruce W. Nelan/Washington