The Coming of the Third World War

For three decades, specter of mutual annihilation of Soviet Union and United States has troubled man's sleep, rising and falling in his consciousness. It is possible to chart anxiety curve of sleepless patient haunted by his fears without ever fully knowing cause of those fears. Anyone striving to look beyond fever chart is thrown into realm of intangibles: of shifting patterns of public attitudes; of national moods; of political debates and election contests; of controversies over missile gaps and gains and losses in arms race; of hopes and fears, dreams and disillusionment; of weighty personalities tipping scales; of public response to new arms technology priest kings; and of ambitious leaders striving to recoup their fortunes. When fever begins to climb, political technician can graph its ascent. His testing can probably show who fears and sometimes why.' As with individual anxiety, as any pastor, priest, or psychiatrist can attest, the rub comes with When technical men yield to diagnostic men, layers of problem to be studied deepen and multiply. What is needed are new forms of wisdom whenever we move from what to why. The what is not difficult to define for 1980s. The national mood is troubled, anxious, and confused. Doubt and despair are pervasive. From supreme self-confidence that for every problem a solution could be found, national consensus on future has fallen to a level of dread fear that national problems have outrun solutions. In this, public leaders and followers reinforce one another. Liberal Republicans such as late Nelson Rockefeller by late 1970s had joined conservatives like Barry Goldwater in expressing their doubts

Economic history · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Third world · World War II · Health and Conflict Studies · History · Law

• The Hazards of Operations Involving Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War

  Milton Leitenberg•Journal of Cold War Studies•2018

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