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Dear Sir:
Let's look at another "The Day After" scenario. It is the
day after a mutually verifiable nuclear and conventional
disarmament agreement has been signed with the Soviet Union. Our
government is preparing to send out contract cancellation letters
to our defense contractors. We will no longer need military
aircraft from Lockheed, Grumman, Northrop, Rockwell and General
Dynamics and other aircraft manufacturers. The trucks and tanks
and other automotive products will no longer be needed from
Chrysler, Ford, GM, Caterpillar and FMC, etc. Orders to ammunition
suppliers will be cancelled as well as orders to textile
manufacturers for military uniforms, blankets, etc. Orders for
missiles, ammunition, shells, guns etc. will be cancelled.
The major defense contractors will in turn cancel sub-
contracts held with thousands of their suppliers. Navy ships
will be decommissioned and shipyards closed as well as hundreds
of naval air and sea stations in the US and throughout the world.
The troops will be brought back from Europe and the far east and
discharged to civilian life. The Army, Navy and Air Force will
release hundreds of thousands more from domestic service and
close hundreds of domestic and foreign Army and Air Force
installations. Millions of discharged military and defense
industry civilians will join the unemployment rolls. Billions of
defense dollars will disappear from the economy, not only in the
US, but in those foreign nations whose economies we have been
supporting for the last forty years. The world will see a
depression that will make the 1930s seem like boom times.
Eisenhower's fear of the military-industrial complex has
become a reality. It is unlikely that anyone whose livelihood
will disappear when peace occurs will be enthusiastic about
reaching a disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union. This
includes almost everyone in Washington and certainly everyone
employed by any of the defense contractors country-wide. Our
legislators in Washington seem aware of these terrifying
consequences of peace, since few of them evince much interest in
pursuing any policies which show promise of leading to a peaceful
solution to our differences with the Soviet Union.
Happily, there is another side to this coin. Thousands of
scientists and engineers will be able to turn from military
research and development to more productive labors in the
civilian sector. The skills of thousands of technically
trained ex-military GIs and civilians will become available to
the private sector. Several hundred billion dollars can be
diverted from the defense to providing training and
employment to these liberated people as well as the millions of
presently unemployed and under-employed persons. We can begin
the reconstruction of our national infra-structure (roads,
bridges, dams, sewage plants, public buildings etc.)
We will have the opportunity to make a peaceful world that
we can be proud to leave to our children.
Pat Rankin
867 N Lamb #180
Las Vegas NV 89110
452-8684