October
25, 2005
More Than 470 Physicists Sign Petition
To Oppose U.S. Policy On Nuclear Attack
By Kim McDonald
More than 470
physicists, including seven Nobel laureates, have signed a petition
to oppose a new U.S. Defense Department proposal that allows
the United States to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear
states.
The petition was started
by two physics professors at the University of California, San
Diego, Kim Griest and Jorge Hirsch, who said they felt an obligation
to speak out about the nuclear policy change because their profession
brought nuclear weapons into the world 60 years ago.
They and other prominent
physicists who signed the petition—which will be delivered
to members of Congress, scientific professional societies and
the news media—object to the new policy because it blurs
the sharp line between nuclear weapons and conventional, chemical
and biological weapons.
“While it has
long been a U.S. policy to use nuclear weapons in order to respond
to a nuclear attack,” said Hirsch, “the new policy
allows the U.S. to use nuclear weapons against states that do
not have nuclear weapons and for a host of new reasons, including
rapid termination of a conflict on U.S. terms or to ensure success
of the U.S. forces.”
“Humanity has
gone more than half a century without using nuclear weapons,
in large part because of the success of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty,” said Griest. “The U.S. use of nuclear weapons
against non-nuclear states will destroy the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty and give strong incentive for other countries to develop
and use nuclear weapons, thus making nuclear war more likely.
As physicists we feel we need to bring this to the attention
of policy makers and the public, in order to engender discussion,
debate, and hopefully repudiation of the new policy.”
The two physicists
began their grass roots petition last month following reports
in The New York Times and Washington Post
that the federal government was in the final process of adopting
a new U.S. policy that would permit the use of nuclear weapons
against an adversary for the following reasons:
- For rapid and favorable
war termination on U.S. terms.
- To ensure success
of U.S. and multinational operations.
- To demonstrate U.S.
intent and capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary
use of weapons of mass destruction.
- Against an adversary
intending to use weapons of mass destruction against US, multinational,
or alliance forces.
Griest and Hirsch put
their petition on the internet at http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/
, invited their colleagues to sign and quickly received an avalanche
of responses.
The petition is signed
by two past presidents of the American Physical Society, the
premier professional organization for U.S. physicists—George
Trilling of UC Berkeley and Jerome Friedman of MIT. Friedman,
who is also a Nobel laureate, was joined on the petition by
six other Nobel Prizewinners in physics—Philip Anderson
of Princeton University, Anthony Leggett of the University of
Illinois, Douglas Osheroff of Stanford University, Daniel Tsui
of Princeton University, Steven Weinberg of the University of
Texas and Frank Wilczek of MIT.
Other prominent physicists
on the petition include Fields Medal winner Edward Witten of
the Institute for Advanced Study, Wolf Prize laureates Michael
Fisher of the University of Maryland and Daniel Kleppner of
MIT, and Leo Kadanoff of the University of Chicago, a recipient
of the National Medal of Science and president-elect of the
American Physical Society.
“We point out
in the petition that nuclear weapons are on a completely different
scale than other weapons of mass destruction and conventional
weapons and that the underlying principle of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty is that in exchange for other countries forgoing the
development of nuclear weapons, the nuclear weapon states will
pursue nuclear disarmament,” said Hirsch. "Instead,
this new U.S. policy dramatically increases the risk of nuclear
proliferation and, ultimately, the risk that regional conflicts
will explode into all-out nuclear war, with the potential to
destroy our civilization.”
The physicists hope
to gain additional supporters before a meeting of the executive
board of the American Physical Society on November 18 and a
meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on November
24.
Comment:
Kim Griest (858) 534-0924,
Jorge Hirsch (858) 534-3931
Media Contact: Kim
McDonald (858) 534-7572
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