In concluding that the Soviets have "many ('big nuclear missiles') in southern and far-eastern (Soviet) provinces aimed at targets all around the world," the Vancouver Sun article states that the study decides that what such deployments mean is:
"It also gives Soviet missiles the ability to hit less likely targets in such places as Brazil and South Africa."
It is superfluous to point out that Reagan's S.D.I. scheme could never save humanity should a concentrated nuclear strike or exchange be initiated in these circumstances.
Why, you might ask, would i address this matter in a submission of a poem for inclusion in an anthology of Canadian science fiction?
I happen to like science fiction, and when it came to my attention that i might be able to have "Science Fiction" (the poem) included in "Tesseracts3", i decided that the imagery in it might be too obscure for even the discerning minds of science fiction readers, so i determined to prepare this explanation.
Thus, i went into the newspaper morgues to get a copy of the
Charles Drew obituary to check my term of reference, and
happened upon an April 4, 1950 Vancouver Sun article by
J.M. Roberts, Jr. (acknowledged therein as an "AP
Foreign Affairs Analyst") titled, "Don't Give Up Dreams,
Edward; Even H-Bomb Can't Kill Ideas", which reminded me of
a November 14, 1980 Toronto Sun "YOU SAID IT"
interview feature (included in a January 13, 1983 statement to
Joe Clark and Ed
Broadbent, the Canadian politicians), that had asked five
Toronto children between the ages of six and ten years old:
"How do you feel about war?"
The 1950 article was a response to a letter by
then-nine-year-old Edward Stephens to his New York
school's parents' association. Little Edward wanted to
know if, "in the light of the hydrogen bomb and all the things
people are saying about the state of the world, it is really
worthwhile to go on studying."
Mr. Edwards quotes the young boy asking why he should
plan for the future if bombing like that is to come from
"selfish people who think only for themselves and not of
anything that really matters?" And his article contains "an
open letter for him."
He notes in it that "having fought two wars in this century to
achieve freedom from the fear of aggression, and having won
these wars on the battlefield only to lose them at the
conference tables," those with questions in their hearts and
minds like little Edward "find little has been achieved."
But Mr. Edwards goes on to point out that "the history of
man, Edward, is that he does not give up." And "through
all the pages of history there runs the theme of a dream, when
the battle flags shall be furled, and man shall live in
brotherhood....Even if there is to be another war, I think it
must be some years before it comes. There is time for ideas to
work against it or to lessen its effects."
The 1980 article quoted one ten-year old saying: