No More War! by Linus Pauling (review)

BOOK REVIEWS No More War! By Linus Pauling. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1958. Pp. 254. $3.50. This book has been reviewed in practically all major journals, its merits and weaknesses so well pointed out that there is little new that can be said about it. It tells us that war is impossible because the atomic weapons mean self-destruction. It explains the nature of these weapons. It discusses fallout and its consequences for human health. It describes nuclear war and tells us about the "scientists' appeal for peace" and the need for international agreements, and it proposes "research for peace." In the Appendix it quotes Einstein, the Mainau declaration of Nobel Laureates, and the "Declaration of Conscience " by Albert Schweitzer. All this it does in the simple, logical, attractive, clear fashion we are accustomed to in Pauling's writing. Several earlier reviewers disagreed with some ofPauling's statements and conclusions. Some ofthem find his numerical values about consequences of fallout too high or too low. Some find he overestimates C14. The present reviewer is unable to accept one of Pauling's main conclusions: that there can be no more war because it is such a horrid non-sense. NormanAngeli said the same thing inhis Great Illusion in 1905, and two world wars followed. It was equally non-sense then, although it may have become infinitely morehorrid since.Butnow,as then,politics are dominated bynineteenth-century thinkers who have not been awakened to the changethat modern science has brought about. Then, as now, there were influential groups willing to thrust mankind into war for their narrow fanaticism or vested interests. There is one more important factor which has been added: with all the technicalities involved, pushing one wrong button may start the holocaust, and the number ofsuch buttons and, therefore, the statistical chances ofa mistake increase day by day. One fool, one button, or one misinterpreted message may do it. But all these objections that one can raise do not really matter. Ifthere can be war, the more urgent is the necessity to follow Pauling's trail. It does not matter whether he is right in his numerical estimate offallout or C14.There can be no doubt that war means self-destruction and that any high-energy radiation is harmful. From a moral point of view, it is immaterial whether 15,000 or only 1,500 misformed babies will be born yearly as a consequence of the present bomb testing. In both cases, equally, the testing is a criminal act—poisoning the atmosphere, the common property of mankind—which denies our moral obligation to posterity. It is an expression ofthe present selfish Machiavellian immorality ofbig-power politics. The book brings out clearly the monstrosity ofwar, the difference ofthe "peace and plenty for all" we could have, and the miserable end we are heading for by continuing to heap up the instruments ofdestruction. The difference between these two possibilities 372 Book Reviews Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1959 is so evident that one feels ashamed that such a book has to be written at all, that we still squander our treasures on building gigantic war machines while there are still many hungry mouths to fill and many schools to build. But such a book did have to be written, and Pauling's policy is the most hopeful one: to go to the people at large, the man in the street, who, at the same time, is the voter, and convince him that there is no safety in the metastable balance ofterror. Nobody should leave these pages unturned, this being everybody's problem. The fact that the writer ofthis book is one ofthe greatest scientists ofour age, who can gain nothing but can lose a great deal by such writing, gives special significance to this book. One must askhimselfwhyPauling takes all this time and trouble. What makes him do it? What is his motive? The answer is evident: this book is the expression ofthat anguish, anxiety, and moral responsibility most scientists must feel, once they look beyond the narrow limits oftheir actual research. This makes the book one ofthe most important historical documents of our age and makes Pauling stand out...