Nassau and After General Pierre Gallois Enemies of Promises C.
J. Douglas, D. E. H. Haycox Hispanic Studies Richard Bottlind Unfashionable Angries John Francis, Sebastian M. Alldyne Watt's Watt B. Duncan Spanish Burial Mrs. Geogrey Christian
Clement Davies Mrs. Clement Davies
NASSAU AND AFTER SIR,— Mr. Hedley Bull's article is full of interest, but it seems to me that the author has written a long paper based on premises which to my eyes are uncertain.
First, he writes that the thesis which i support states that a country possessing nuclear arms is militarily independent and, cons.equently, that it is a great power in the sense in which Ranke understood it. Mr. Hedley Bull's deductive reasoning seems to me false in as much as he associates a certain security in the nuclear age with an old definition of the power of States. This reasoning is also a little childish, since it is founded on a military independence which today has not the same meaning in Mr. Bull's mouth as in mine. What I have said and written is that nuclear wars are only feared and, consequently, only have political meaning in extreme circumstances when the vital interests of a country are threatened by another. To be logical, if I accept this limitation of the power of these arms, I must also conclude that military alliances no longer exist from the moment that they are directed against an opponent possessing this type of armament. If Mr. Bull reasoned in this way and admitted these premises, no doubt his article would be very different.
As to the efficiency of the 'striking forces' of a medium-size country like Great Britain and France, perhaps. it appears doubtful. But what are we to say of the power of deterrence of the four divisions which each of these countries manage to establish.
If Great Britain, rather like France between the two world wars, wishes to practise euthanasia, let her do it, but let her not push others in the same direction with reasons which are very intelligent, but based on premises completely outmoded both by the techniques of armament existing today and by the resulting political situation in the world.
PIERRE M. GALLOIS
Paris
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