The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, November 19, 1982 Page: 4 of 16
sixteen pages : ill. ; page 20 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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THRESHING-IT-OUT
Reader writes Reagan
To the Editor:
This is a copy of a letter I
recently wrote to President
Reagan. It is my hope that you and
the readers of the Thresher will
write similar letters to the
President and/or your congress-
men in an effort to influence their
opinions on this crucial matter.
I write this letter because of my
deep concern about one of the
most relevant issues of our day—
the nuclear arms race.
Over the past few years we have
heard more and more from you
and other government leaders
about an alleged "window of
vulnerability" which you claim
puts the United States in an
inferior position vis a vis the Soviet
Union in terms of strategic nuclear
capability. This so-called window
of vulnerability, we are told, might
tempt the Soviets to launch a first
strike against the United States,
thus destroying over ninety
percent of our ICBMs and a large
number of our B-52 bomber force.
The fact is, however, that the
Soviet Union is no more likely to
launch a first strike against the US
now than it ever was. The reason
for this is simple; they have no idea
what would happen if they did
attack. This is true for a number of
reasons.
1) There would be so many
unknowns involved in a nuclear
war that no one could have any
certainty as to what the outcome
would be. These uncertainties
involve the reliability of the
missiles (will they even launch, will
they explode), the accuracy of the
missiles (especially considering the
fact that no ICBM has even been
fired over the North Pole as they
would be in a US-Soviet war), the
capability of the enemy targets to
survive the attack, and so on. For
all the Soviets really know their
attack on the US might turn out to
be a complete or partial failure.
2) Even if we assume the worst
case and a Soviet attack did
destroy over ninety percent of our
ICBMs and sixty percent of our
bombers the US might still choose
to respond with its remaining B-
52s and its SLBMs. Either of these
components of our nuclear triad
could devastate the Soviet Union.
The point of all this is to show
that the belief that we are now
behind or vulnerable to the Soviets
in terms of strategic nuclear
capability is a fallacy. The US
nuclear deterrent remains as
strong now as it has been for many
years.
This leads me to my second
point. The United States should
now initiate with the Soviet Union
a mutual nuclear arms freeze-
that is a moratorium on the
development, testing, and
deployment of all nuclear weapons
systems, using our National
Technical Means of Verification to
ensure that the agreement is being
followed. We must recognize the
fact the the nuclear arms balance is
now one of parity. Neither side has
an advantage over the other for
both sides are assured complete
destruction in the event of a
nuclear war. And neither side will
ever be ahead in this arms race
again because increased military
spending by one side will
inevitably lead to increased
spending by the other (witness
events in the past few years). New
weapons will only serve to make an
already very dangerous situation
even more unstable. Let us quit
now while we have the chance.
Jeff P. Manciagli
Molson
presents the
Canadian
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imported by Martlet Importing Co., Inc., Great Neck, N^ ( 19'2
BREWtD
Thresher found lewd,
amateurish, and Mad
To the Editor:
As a student from UT who visits
his girlfriend here at Rice, I have
ample opportunity to read the
Thresher and compare it with the
UT student newspaper, the Daily
Texan. No, this isn't a letter of the
"Rice sucks, UT #1" variety. It's
simply a comment on the
laughable junkheap the Thresher
appears when compared to a
genuine journalistic endeavor.
Does the Thresher really expect to
be taken seriously or regarded as
anything more than the adolescent
plaything of a gang of pseudo-
journalists when its Mpee-pee, doo-
doo" mentality is objectively, even
subjectively examined?
Take "Zorro," for example.
Now there's a clown with real
integrity. And a whopping IQ and
SAT score to boot. Too bad he
rejected the utilization of either,
and turned jnbtead to writing gutsy
slanders of brilliant, friendly, and
professionally competent
professors under the cover of
anonymity. Zorro is obviously a
competent judge of shit, because
(uncharacteristically) he wisely
refrained from signing his real
name to the fecal matter he
authors. That's pathetic enough.
But the real joke is that the
Thresher is such a trashy little rag
that it actually prints the garbage.
That and the sex starved ravings
conjured up by impotent Rice Men
and lumped under misclassifieds.
Get real you amateur journalists
and professional jerks. The only
people who enjoy reading that crap
are the cowardly boys who write it.
You want a lewd version of Mad
magazine, devoid of journalistic
quality and comically empty? Keep
on truckin'. „ , _
Seth Davidson
Myers adds weapons
to support deterrence
To the Editor:
Mr. eanon has written an
interesting letter, and I would like
to make a few additional
comments. Additional parts of our
nuclear deterrence are the B-52
and FB111 squadrons we have on
alert. The carrying capacity of the
fleet is large-two thirds of our
nuclear throw weight is carried by
the bombers. Any attempt to
attack the United States would
inevitably involve an attack on
USAF bases. Not all the alert
planes would be destroyed, but the
attack would have to be made
because of the potential
destructive power of the planes.
This introduces a further
complication.
A number of USAF bases are on
foreign soil. We have, for example,
USAF bases in England and
Okinawa. We possess radar
stations in Greenland. A
preemptive strike by the Soviets
would not only have to take into
consideration the strategic forces
of the US, but other nations as
well. England, Japan, and
probably France would be
involved. This is a war on a global
scale. Any plan by the Soviet
Union to launch a pre-emptive
nuclear strike must therefore take
into account Soviet willingness to
start, fight,"and survive World War
III. This is a prospect, I believe,
virtually anyone would find
unpalatable, including the Soviets.
David Myers
Biochem Graduate
The Rice Thresher, November 19, 1982, page 4
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Morgan, Tom. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, November 19, 1982, newspaper, November 19, 1982; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245516/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.