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We are told that adequate means of defense must be maintained, else the evil powers arraigned against us will overwhelm the liberties, the justice, the religion, the decencies we hold dear. We are told further that the policy of unilateral nuclear renunciation is a policy of surrender to those powers. The answer is that those who support the traditional way of defending those liberties--the military way--are today the real enemies, since the traditional way will lead inescapably to war, which in turn will lead to their total destruction, and our partial destruction. Those who claim that the next war will not necessarily be a nuclear one, talk like fools. When such power is within the reach of men, they will act like human beings, with all the weakness of human beings to resist great temptation, to grasp it. If it is not rejected now, in the calmer atmosphere of peace, it will certainly not be rejected later in the tenser atmosphere of war. If the unilateral policy is not accepted now, the penalty will inevitably follow.

-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 3 : Their Presence in The World > # 453