Linus Pauling: I believe that we have more than the number of weapons needed to kill everybody on
Earth. Perhaps as many as 5 times the number of atomic bombs needed to kill everybody
on Earth if they were be exploded as ground bursts, rather uniformly distributed over
the land surfaces of the Earth, but with a concentration in the regions where there
is the greatest number of people living. The USSR may have several times the number
of atomic bombs needed to kill everybody on Earth.
On the 8th of January of 1960, President Eisenhower said "Even if there were to be
a great surprise nuclear attack on the United States launched by the USSR, we could
still destroy Russia completely." And on the 13th of January, Mr. Khrushchev said
"Even if the US were to launch a great surprise nuclear attack on the USSR, we could
still destroy the United States completely."
This is the situation. It is impossible to prevent the direct attack or the retaliatory
attack on the United states and the USSR that would kill nearly everybody in these
two countries and would damage the survivors in such a way that one can hardly have
hope that civilization would continue in these parts of the Earth.
