Nuclear intimidation must not prevail

Fellow citizen George Wright has forcefully reminded us about the horror of nuclear war (letter May 7). This is no idle anxiety. During my formative years we read one prediction after another about how nuclear holocaust would devastate the world. I once told my Los Angeles students we shouldn’t “worry” about the outcome of a nuclear war, because we would die in the first hour.

Vladimir Putin has painted not only himself but the entire world into a corner. He assumed Ukraine would surrender Donbas, and possibly more, without a fight. Now he’s desperate and he’s attempting to play the nuclear weapon trump card.

It’s not obvious to me how

Mr. Wright proposes to deal with Putin, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, and other autocrats with nuclear weapons. “If you don’t give me Ukraine, I’ll … .” Or, “If you don’t allow me to reunify Korea on my terms, I’ll … .” Or, “If Taiwan does not recognize Beijing as its ruler, I’ll … .” Do we surrender?

Scary as the Russian threat to use nuclear weapons is, I believe the people of the free world must stand firm. Franklin Roosevelt said it well in a 1937 speech: Quarantine the aggressors. If we don’t stand firm in Ukraine, we will find ourselves forced to stand strong somewhere, and likely sooner rather than later.

We hoped we had triumphed in 1991 at the end of the Cold War. It’s unfortunate we were wrong. For an indefinite future, we must sacrifice wealth and peace to defend our liberty. Although the threat of nuclear war hovers over us, let us be strong.

— Charles Copeland, Chico