Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Race to Destruction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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nuclear weapons test. The Administration then claimed that the Soviet
moratorium was a meaningless charade because they had “accelerated
the number of tests that they’ve had so that they wouldn’t need to test
for the next five months or so” (National Security Adviser Robert
McFarlane). The media accepted this fable. The New York Times wrote
that the Soviet offer “would ring hollow even if it had not come
immediately after an energetic series of Soviet test explosions.”
Unreported was the fact that the Soviet testing program for 1985 was
below the average for preceding years, with seven tests compared with
nine for the US, which was testing more sophisticated technologies, and
a tenth immediately after the Soviet moratorium. Overall, the US has
conducted 754 nuclear explosions as compared to 561 by the USSR
and about 200 by other powers. Senator Durenberger had commented
earlier that “a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty would stop menacing
Soviet developments while preserving the technological edge the United
States enjoys in their nuclear warheads.” 22
Again we see that the US military system is driven by powerful
factors, sufficient to override domestic and international opinion and
even direct threats to US security. Once again, the complicity of the
media is illustrated, this time, in accelerating the race to destruction.
A ban on nuclear weapons testing would halt or at least seriously
impede dangerous technical advances. A comprehensive ban on flight
testing of missiles would reduce the likelihood of a first strike, the
alleged goal of “Star Wars.” The reason, as explained by Herbert Lin,
Research Fellow in the MIT Defense and Arms Control program, is that
“a first strike requires missiles of certifiably high reliability,” and
“virtually all analysts agree that the lack of flight testing would over time
erode confidence in the performance of these missiles.” Such a test ban,
he notes, would achieve the stated goals of the Star Wars program
within even the most optimistic time frame and assessment of SDI and