Is SALT worth supporting? No!
Gumbleton, Thomas J.
IS SALT WORTH SUPPORTING? NO! Chaplains...
...German churches' resistance to Hitler, once declared the most vital issue facing Christianity has been the inability of the churches to take a definite stand against nuclear weapons...
...As possessors of a vast nuclear arse- new strategic submarine and long-range bomber...
...no lack of steps we could take in the struggle to assure that We have a responsibility to begin to develop in ourselves and every person on earth begins to have enough to eat, decent the whole community "a whole new attitude toward war," as shelter, adequate education and health care, and all the things Vatican Council II has called for...
...I was pleased seemed that those in positions of religious and moral leaderto have an opportunity to learn more about the proposed treaty ship were not going to ask them either...
...would have under SALT II, one of the bomb exploded over that city and incinerated 80,000 to participants asked a question...
...This bill race persists, it will eventually spawn all the lethal ruin whose would provide an entirely new resource for peace programs...
...It is not...
...Am I now ready instead to seek throughout the reli- MOTHER CLEAR reason why SALT II is not the first step in gious community support of a policy of our government that so reversing the arms race is the kind of "selling job" that is recently has been clearly judged immoral...
...Until This is really the failure of SALT II...
...proval of that statement...
...In it he giving moral guidance on the arms race...
...Pope Paul in 1976, even appealed to us to and in freedom...
...Those went readily, because I had implicitly assumed I in government were not going to ask such questions...
...It will.take time, and we must do it one step at a time...
...It is not the first step...
...It is not the beginning of1976-while the arms race had been going on for almost 30 Commonweal: 106 years-where did we find clear moral guidance from Catholic bishops in the United States, or very many other religious "A much better answer is simply to end leaders, similar to the statement in "To Live in Christ Jesus" quoted above...
...If one accepts the no first understood that...
...justice we could develop, starting with changes in our own First, the religious community should pledge itself to under- lifestyle and our use of this world's goods, but there surely is take a massive effort of education and conscience formation...
...If only it were a first step...
...poor...
...2 March 1979: 107...
...He the first use of nuclear weapons...
...We cannot extricate ourselves with one decisive action...
...He compared it to the churches' inability to take a stand against Hitler...
...In fact, he was saying that that was a moral On June 30, 1975, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger problem, a religious question-not a political one-and reli- publicly stated:"Under no circumstances could we disavow gious leaders had to be concerned with such questions...
...In 1978 Pope Paul urged us "to say 'rio' to vio- race is not peace but holocaust...
...I would tice...
...Consider this report in the New York Times as recently as dependency on nuclear weapons...
...situation became...
...We are still hostages press ahead with modernizing its nuclear arsenal...
...Religious leaders, I think, have nuclear forces that would "doubtlessly propel" the Car- a major share of the responsibility for this situation...
...Hiroshima...
...unemployment, and many other social problems in the United We do not agree with their understanding as to what will bring States...
...This policy has not been modified...
...by the questioner...
...The arguments made for the treaty torture chambers permitted to governments...
...We the 95th Congress) intended to move us from an arms-based could win such a debate, but we would not have made any real economy to one based on peacetime civilian-oriented progress toward reversing the arms race...
...Instead of emphasizing that the arms race has The argument has been raised that at least SALT 11 puts a brought us to the most dangerous point of insecurity for all "cap" on the permissible number of such weapons...
...Here we are, deeply inplicated in an immoral situation...
...While noting that he "wholeheartedly" supported the It is very late in the history of the arms race...
...combatants...
...Yet as I nations that...
...32:7...
...We had weakens deterrence...
...Furthermore, I do not see any "Defense Economic Adjustment Act,"a Senate bill (S2279 in reason to engage in a debate with them over SALT II...
...We must also share with others could be the first step in assuring that our resources are used in the moral judgment of the Vatican statement to the U.S...
...The government representative who had just been speaking, I began to ponder the fact that SALT II would legitimate the indicated his awareness that support for such weapons might destructive power of 615,000 Hiroshima bombs, the present be troubling to a religious leader...
...Their responsibility was to guarantee support for an agreement that would sanction that kind of the "security" of the United States by making sure that even destructive power in the hands of any government...
...Not only positively building peace...
...us as religious leaders to support the kind of arsenal you are I remembered Pope Paul VI in his Peace Day Statement of describing...
...non-combatants are gravely wrong, and no one may At this point in the arms race it is a race in technology and participate in such an act...
...163) consider as an example for our own time "what can be done by We must stop the arms race now and undertake this task with a weak man, Gandhi-armed only with the principle of non- the greatest sense of urgency because the finish line in the arms violence...
...Do you mean that you expect 100,000 people in 9 seconds-men, women, children...
...Chaplains blessing the bombers for SALT II...
...It is a race to increase the destructive capacity At the same time, no nation, our own included, may of the weapons we already possess...
...and Moscow succeeded in working out a new strategic Without that, a mere "cap" on numbers and even some slight arms accord soon, the United States would still have to limit on technology will be meaningless...
...Arms Control Agency and the State Department could not I began to wonder how I as a religious leader could offer make moral evaluations...
...We could prepare the way for the in that "drift toward unparalleled catastrophe" deplored by reversal of the arms race if we took very seriously our responEinstein...
...No member of the armed accuracy of these weapons...
...concerning even the possession of such weapons: When our arsenal can already destroy every major Soviet city The right of legitimate defense is not a moral justifica- 36 times over, it is at least irrelevant, if not ridiculous and tion for unleashing every form of destruction...
...It path it is now making ready...
...Vatican II stated: "Peace is not would this be in accord with our present moral teaching, but it merely the absence of war...
...But can't you support SALT II as the first step in the right direction...
...much better answer is simply to end formal negotiations and Thirdly, the religious community must take the lead in rely on unilateral demonstrations of arms restraint...
...Very serious proposed arms agreement, he said that Moscow would people indicate that nuclear war before the year 2000 is not just be able under the accord to make improvements to its a possibility, it is a probability...
...And his colleagues would not deal with the kind of concern raised what is more, we intend to use them first...
...and to join with other religious leaders in the effort to build a But such questions must be raised...
...within the last year in speaking before the United Nations, The impact of that response for me was immediate and ruled out the use of nuclear weapons by the United States only challenging...
...SALT II will be no different in this regard from any past With respect to nuclear weapons, at least those with agreement...
...that the "enterprise of justice" rather than the continued escalation "the arms race in itself is an act of aggression against the of the arms race...
...The Soviets, even with SALT II, will continue to massive destructive capability, the first imperative is to plan five new land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, a prevent their use...
...Hiroshima as "a butchery of untold magnitude...
...To Live in Christ Jesus...
...BISHOP THOMAS J. GUMBLETON, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, is Presi- I remembered the pastoral letter of the American Bishops dent of Pax Christi, U.S.A...
...And we must really share the necessary to meet basic human needs...
...The answer is simply that...
...We must indicate to the President and to our people promote a national effort to build a climate for conversion from that we cannot in good conscience support SALT II an arms industry to exclusively peace production...
...And the nal, we must also be aware that not only is it wrong to same day that Secretary Vance went to Geneva to conclude the attack civilian populations but it is also wrong to threaten SALT II talks Zbigniew Brzezinski told reporters that the to attack them as part of a strategy of deterrence...
...Torture is wrong, and we could never give our blessing to the maintenance of even one such facility...
...United States would soon have to embark on a multibillion dollar program for deploying mobile intercontinental missiles...
...I can't accept that strongly emphasize that we are not lessening in any way our anyone who firmly believes that torture is immoral would be ready to support such a position...
...with the nuclear gun pointed at our head...
...This letter clearly states the moral 2 March 1979: 105 Position that Catholics are to be guided by regarding not only the reversal of the arms race...
...The arms race goes on...
...I am convinced that a priorities...
...Instead it is rightly and appropriately called 'an enterprise of justice' (Is...
...Besides sharing these reminded us that "there is an immcnge task incumbent on all teachings we must pledge ourselves to seek out in prayer and men (and women) of good will, namely, the task of restoring faith what God has revealed to us, especially in Jesus, about the relations of the human family in truth, in justice, in love the use of violence...
...it is much to be feared that if this a coalition to pass the world Peace Tax Fund Bill...
...By our failure in moral leadership we have acquiesced lence, and 'yes' to peace...
...One Soviets and the U.S...
...It is a race to increase the demand blind obedience...
...being done for it...
...I was with a SALT II agreement, our arsenal would not be inferior to especially troubled when I recalled that President Carter, any nation's...
...untold magnitude...
...the world has ever known, our political leaders are thought about that, it seemed that supporting such an agree- still trying to convince us that we can have security and peace ment would be like supporting a "cap" on the number of through nuclear arms...
...It has been pointed out in a National Council of formal negotiations and rely on unilateral Churches pamphlet that Karl Barth, who was a leader in the demonstrations of arms restraint...
...Gaudium et Spes, #78) suggest the following as an outline of a carefully conceived There is not the space here to go into detail on the program of effort to reverse{ the arms race...
...Instead of forming a conviction of that same Council that "the arms race is an religious coalition of support for SALT II, we could form such utterly treacherous trap...
...Before ter Administration into some form of military response...
...That we should offer religious legitimacy for 1976, describing that bombing of Hiroshima as "a butchery of weapons outlined in your presentation...
...use doctrine, one is accepting a self-denying ordinance that But who really was asking that kind of question...
...of many specialists in and out of government...
...Nor can it be reduced solely to the would also be the most expedient thing to do-in the opinion maintenance of a balance of power between enemies...
...people to face the moral implications of our government's At the end of the morning session, after the facts had been decisions, I began to think again about that most fateful day in carefully laid out about the incredibly large arsenals that the the history of the world: August 6, 1945...
...The There are some who will ask how can you align yourself churches could join in a community effort to prepare for such with the opponents of SALT II who do not want any limitation conversion of our industrial capacity by educating our people on strategic arms whatsoever...
...As noted in the New York Times forces, above all no Christians who bear arms as 'agents (December 24, 1978), "In the view of many analysts, new of security and freedom' can rightfully carry out orders arms agreements do not really limit arms competition, they or policies requiring direct force against non- only push it down different avenues...
...we to understand the interrelationship between the arms race and are not in any way aligned with these opponents of SALT II...
...The government expert indicated that he and That statement left d o doubt that we do intend to use them...
...The more I thought about it, the clearer the against nations that do not themselves have such weapons...
...when we must begin to give strong leadership and clear moral The second step the religious community can take is to guidance...
...In my own reflection on base of support for SALT II in the churches and religious the role of a religious leader and my responsibility to help communities throughout the United States...
...SALT II is the first step in a journey of a thousand miles...
...But his response was that the American arsenal...
...Peace results from the harmony built into I F RELIGIOUS leaders and religious communities can be per- human society by its divine Founder, and actualized by men suaded not to support SALT II, what can they offer instead (and women) as they thirst after ever greater jusin the effort to bring about genuine disarmament...
...WAS AMONG the bishops who overwhelmingly voted ap- A Clearly SALT II is not a first step out of an evil situation...
...Einstein put it accurately December 13, 1978: when he said, "The unleashed power of the atom has changed George M. Seigmous II, the Carter Administration's everything but our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward new director of the Arms Control and Disarmament unparalleled catastrophe...
...That statement put the United States been brought together to be briefed and we were already clearly on public record as being ready and willing to be the devising a strategy to form a Religious Committee of Support first nation to use nuclear weapons in a confrontation with another nation...
...Am I now ready to repudiate that stance...
...We were going to help "sell" SALT II...
...And it would support the signing of the SALT II Treaty...
...sophistication...
...For exam- perhaps even deceptive to talk about a "cap" on numbers as ple, acts of war deliberately directed against innocent though this begins the process of reversing the arms race...
...sibility to teach and form consciences in the light of this ever The call for us to support SALT 11 is "a moment of grace" more urgent teaching about non-violence...
...In 1963 Pope John XXIII, a few weeks before his death, This is only the briefest sampling of the clear statements published his widely acclaimed letter, Pacem in Terris...
...And very concretely we could actively support the genuine security to our nation...
...1976 what pope or bishop referred to the bombing of Business as usual under SALT II...
...A genuine first step in reversing Agency, told reporters today that even if Washington the arms race would require some change in our thinking...
...The very THOMAS J. GUMBLETON religious leaders who should have been raising the challenging WHEN I WAS invited to a briefing session for religious questions about the rightness of our arms policy were simply leaders at the State Department on October 18, 1978, I being "drafted" into an army of support for the treaty...
...The simple * use of weapons of indiscriminate destruction, but also reason is that the arms race is no longer a matter of numbers...
Vol. 106 • March 1979 • No. 4
