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into their payloads than America
can fit into its lighter rocket ·. giving
the Kremlin immense su periority in
warhead power and number. One
somewhat oversimple analogy holds
that this situation would ultimately
amount to a U.S. arsenal of 1.320
BB guns aga inst !.320 Soviet rifl es.
In any case. this lac.:k of so-called
throw-weight control has been a
major crit icism of the SALT
!
1
treaty. ··The Vladivostok Accord."'
summarizes Nitze. ··con tinues toco–
dify a potent ia lly unstable situat ion
caused by the large dispari ty in
throw-weigh t. now being exploited
by Soviet technological improve–
ments."
The potential implicat ions of th is
exploitation a re staggeri ng. "By
1977." Ni tze concludes in a scenario
summary. '"after a Soviet-ini tiated
co unterforce str ike against the
United States to which the United
States responded with a coun ter–
rorce Strike. the Soviet Union would
have remaining Corees sufficient to
destroy Chin ese and European
NATO nuclear ca pabili ty. a ttack
U.S. popu lati on and conven ti onal
military targets. and st ill have a re–
maining force throw-weigh t in ex–
cess of that of the Unit ed States.
And aft er 1977 the Soviet advao–
tage after t he assumed attack
mounts rapid ly."
Clearly. now is th e time, as Ni tze
suggests. for the U.S. to take stock
of he r nuclea r standing.
SEVERE
DROUGHTGRIPS
NORTHERN
EUROPE
A prolonged and record-b reaki ng
drought has been affiicting wide
portions of Northern Europe for
ma ny months, dashing hopes of a
large increase in Common Market
grain prod uction this yea r.
The drough t - beli eved due to a
shift northward of North Atlanti c
wea the r pa tterns - is hitting the
highly productive areas of southern
Bri tain. northern and western
France. the eastern parts of West
Germany. northern Italy and por-
6
~~~~~~~~~--§
TWO COWS
pose by watering hale now left dry by France's worst drought
since 1725.
tions of Belgium. In all, about one
third of the Eu ropean Commu nity's
farmla nds are aiTected .
EEC Agriculture Commissioner
Pet ru s La rd inois estimates th at pro–
jected Common Market wheat cx–
ports have been cut in half because
of the drought. Potato, sugar beet,
and vegetable yields may also be
sharply down. depending on the du–
ra ti on of the dry spel l.
The drought affiicting the south–
ern half of norma lly green Britain is
the worst to hit the isle in 250 years,
according to the British Mete–
orological Office. Water there is in
such shon supply that authorities
have seriously suggested that fam–
il ies climb in to the ba th togeth er to
conserve water. Strict water ration–
ing has been instituted in many
arcas as reservoir and water- table
levels fa ll and rivers and streams
slow to a trickle.
ln a natíon which under norma l
condit ions imports half of its basic
food, a drop in domestic agricul–
tura! production could have severe
economic consequences in these
days of ever-rising prices.
In West Germany. the Farmers·
Federation expects the worst har–
vest since the World War 11. Prices
of bread and beer - staples of the
Ge rman diet -are expected to rise
steeply.
The drought in northern France is
the worst since 1725. and govern–
ment officials in Paris are very con–
cerned over its impact on food
prices.
Cattle a nd s h eep farme rs
th roughou t th e drought- stricke n
areas have been forced to kili off
their livestock months ahead of time
for sale at red uced prices because of
the shortage of foddc r. Th e early
sla ughtering of cattle is a lso ex–
pected to affect milk output.
Complicat ing the dry condit ions.
record heat in some arcas is posing
major problems for fire fighters.
Trees, grass. and crops are tinder
dry, and brush fire are becoming
increasingly frequen t.
Unless big downpours are experi–
cnced soon. experts fee l Western
Europe may face the r isk of large–
sca le fires - as well as critica! short–
ages of water and sorne basic foods.
And if drought returns next year or
- worse yet - becomes a long-term
recurring fea ture of the European
weather scene. the Continent could
fi nd itself having to eventually im–
port Jarge q uantities of foods tuffs.
That would not be good news in an
increasingly food short world.
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1976