Nixon’s atom bombshell
QUESTION
Did the U.S. consider dropping a nuclear bomb during the Vietnam War? Tape recordings of conversations between Richard Nixon, the 37th U.S. president, and some of his top advisers during the first six months of 1972, found him musing openly about dropping a nuclear bomb on North Vietnam.
‘We’re going to do it,’ he said. ‘I’m going to destroy the goddamn country, believe me, I mean destroy it if necessary. and let me say, even the nuclear weapons if necessary. It isn’t necessary. But, you know, what I mean is, what shows you the extent to which I’m willing to go.
‘By a nuclear weapon, I mean that we will bomb the living bejeezus out of North Vietnam and then if anybody interferes we will threaten the nuclear weapons.’
In 2002, about 500 hours of Nixon’s discussions were released by the U.S. National archives and, in his talks with secretary of state Henry Kissinger, he showed this was not a one-off remark.
Nixon: ‘I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that ready?’
Kissinger: ‘That, I think, would just be too much.’
Nixon: ‘ a nuclear bomb, does that bother you? I just want you to think big, Henry, for Christ’s sake! The only place where you and I disagree is with regard to the bombing. You’re so goddamned concerned about civilians, and I don’t give a damn. I don’t care.’
Kissinger: ‘ I’m concerned about the civilians because I don’t want the world to be mobilised against you as a butcher.’
James Coleman, Radstock, Somerset. AS THE Vietnam War escalated in 1966, a pentagon official to president Lyndon B. Johnson was heard by mathematician Freeman Dyson to say: ‘It might be a good idea to toss in a nuke from time to time, just to keep the other side guessing.’
Dyson assembled a team to perform a so- called JASON study, where an independent group advised the U.S. government on tactical nuclear weapons use in South-east asia. The project was led by Dyson, chemist Robert Gomer, quantum physicist Steven Weinberg and particle physicist Courtenay Wright.
Seymour Deitchman, of the Institute for Defence analysis, confirmed: ‘There had been not infrequent talk among military people that “a few nukes” dropped on strategic locations, such as the Mu Gia pass through the mountainous barrier along the North Vietnamese-Laotian border, would close that pass (and others) for good.’
The 55-page study analysed the effects of using tactical nuclear weapons against a variety of targets, as well as the likely political effects of a nuclear campaign.
It concluded that a nuclear attack on Vietnamese insurgents would ‘offer the U.S. no decisive military advantage’. Rather, the political effects ‘would be uniformly bad and could be catastrophic’.
Paul Johns, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION
Theresa May has been criticised for using the phrase ‘strong and stable’ too often. Who coined it? DURING this year’s General election campaign, many newspapers pointed out that adolf Hitler used the phrase in his political blueprint, Mein Kampf.
In the chapter propaganda and Organisation, he writes: ‘On the contrary, he must endeavour to take weakness and bestiality equally into account, in order, considering all factors, to create a formation which will be a living organism, imbued with strong and stable power, and thus suited to upholding an idea and paving the way for its success.’
Hitler also wrote in the work: ‘November 9, 1923, in the fourth year of its existence, the National Socialist German Workers’ party was dissolved and forbidden throughout the . . . Reich. Today, in November, 1926, it stands again before us, free . . . stronger and internally more stable than ever before.’
However, the phrase in a political context predates Hitler by more than a century. It was used in the preamble to the French Constitution of the Year VIII (1799): ‘The constitution is founded on the true principles of representative government, on the sacred rights of property, equality and liberty . . . The powers which it institutes will be strong and stable; such as they ought to be in order to guarantee the rights of the citizens, and the interests of the state.’
This constitution, which effectively spelled the end of the French revolutionary government, was drawn up following Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup.
Marcus Wightman, Liverpool.
QUESTION
Is Eric Clapton the last living member of The Intro And The Outro list of personalities mentioned by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band? THE previous answer overlooked ‘Lord Snooty and his pals’, who first appeared in the 1938 debut issue of The Beano comic by Dundee publisher D. C. Thomson. To all intents and purposes, Snooty is still extant.
Lord Marmaduke of Bunkerton was drawn by Dudley D. Watkins until his death in 1969, with successors including the late Robert Nixon. The strip, which lasted until 1991, was The Beano’s longest-running feature until that crown was usurped by Dennis the Menace.
In 2013, Lord Snooty was brought back as a three-panel strip in Funsize Funnies, while 2008 saw a new version, Snooty The Third, Marmaduke’s grandson.
The original character is still in the comic’s online version and could be brought back at any time. as one fan put it: ‘all Beano characters are immortal!’
David Robinson, Peterborough, Cambs.
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