i am peaking not a a briton, not a a european, not a a member of a wetern democracy, but a a human being, a member of the pecie man, whoe continued eitence i in doubt. the world i full of conflict: jew and arab; indian and pakitani; white men and negroe in africa; and, overhadowing all minor conflict, the titanic truggle between communim and anticommunim.
almot everybody who i politically conciou ha h2 feeling about one or more of thee iue; but i want you, if you can, to et aide uch feeling for the moment and conider yourelf only a a member of a biological pecie which ha had a remarkable hitory and whoe diappearance none of u can deire. i hall try to ay no ingle word which hould appeal to one group rather than to another. all, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril i undertood, there i hope that they may collectively avert it. we have to learn to think in a new way. we have to learn to ak ourelve not what tep can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are uch tep. the quetion we have to ak ourelve i: what tep can be taken to prevent a military contet of which the iue mut be diatrou to all ide?
the general public, and even many men in poition of authority, have not realized what would be involved in a war with hydrogen bomb. the general public till think in term of the obliteration of citie. it i undertood that the new bomb are more powerful than the old and that, while one atomic bomb could obliterate hirohima, one hydrogen bomb could obliterate the larget citie uch a london, new york, and mocow. no doubt in a hydrogen-bomb war great citie would be obliterated. but thi i one of the minor diater that would have to be faced. if everybody in london, new york, and mocow were eterminated, the world might, in the coure of a few centurie, recover from the blow. but we now know, epecially ince the bikini tet, that hydrogen bomb can gradually pread detruction over a much wider area than had been uppoed. it i tated on very good authority that a bomb can now be manufactured which will be 25,000 time a powerful a that which detroyed hirohima. uch a bomb, if eploded near the ground or under water, end radioactive particle into the upper air. they ink gradually and reach the urface of the earth in the form of a deadly dut or rain. it wa thi dut which infected the japanee fihermen and their catch of fih although they were outide what american epert believed to be the danger zone. no one know how widely uch lethal radioactive particle might be diffued, but the bet authoritie are unanimou in aying that a war with hydrogen bomb i quite likely to put an end to the human race. it i feared that if many hydrogen bomb are ued there will be univeral death - udden only for a fortunate minority, but for the majority a low torture of dieae and diintegration...WWw.hAOZUowEn.com
here, then, i the problem which i preent to you, tark and dreadful and inecapable: hall we put an end to the human race1 or hall mankind renounce war? people will not face thi alternative becaue it i o difficult to abolih war. the abolition of war will demand ditateful limitation of national overeignty. but what perhap impede undertanding of the ituation more than anything ele i that the term mankind feel vague and abtract. people carcely realize in imagination that the danger i to themelve and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity and o they hope that perhap war may be allowed to continue provided modern weapon are prohibited. i am afraid thi hope i illuory. whatever agreement not to ue hydrogen bomb had been reached in time of peace, they would no longer be conidered binding in time of war, and both ide would et to work to manufacture hydrogen bomb a oon a war broke out, for if one ide manufactured the bomb and the other did not, the ide that manufactured them would inevitably be victoriou...
a geological time i reckoned, man ha o far eited only for a very hort period one million year at the mot. what he ha achieved, epecially during the lat 6,000 year, i omething utterly new in the hitory of the como, o far at leat a we are acquainted with it. for countle age the un roe and et, the moon waed and waned, the tar hone in the night, but it wa only with the coming of man that thee thing were undertood. in the great world of atronomy and in the little world of the atom, man ha unveiled ecret which might have been thought undicoverable. in art and literature and religion, ome men have hown a ublimity of feeling which make the pecie worth preerving. i all thi to end in trivial horror becaue o few are able to think of man rather than of thi or that group of men? i our race o detitute of widom, o incapable of impartial love, o blind even to the implet dictate of elf-preervation, that the lat proof of it illy cleverne i to be the etermination of all life on our planet? - for it will be not only men who will perih, but alo the animal, whom no one can accue of communim or anticommunim.
i cannot believe that thi i to be the end. i would have men forget their quarrel for a moment and reflect that, if they will allow themelve to urvive, there i every reaon to epect the triumph of the future to eceed immeaurably the triumph of the pat. there lie before u, if we chooe, continual progre in happine, knowledge, and widom. hall we, intead, chooe death, becaue we cannot forget our quarrel? i appeal, a a human being to human being: remember your humanity, and forget the ret. if you can do o, the way lie open to a new paradie; if you cannot, nothing lie before you but univeral death.