European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 12, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday february 12, 1969 the stars and stripes Page 9 William f. Buckley or. What would West get out of atom pact or. Nixon hat said that he if prepared to sign the non proliferation treaty but that actually it would com better As a part of a general settlement. One Hope that i a Way of laying look what we re up to Here it a Deal Between the soviet Union and the United states to discourage if not to prevent West Germany s getting hold of nuclear bombs. Of but what is the West sup posed to get out of it the treaty itself is either of purely symbolic meaning or else it i an act of historical impudence without precedent in recorded diplomacy. If it is purely symbolic it is because a France and China Are not going to sign the treaty so that what we have set up is a Tennis game of doubles with one member of each Side declining to abide by the rules and b because the scientific world knows that the Means Are now available by which a country can go ahead and produce an atom bomb without much fear of routine detection and anyway the treaty s provisions permit a nation s withdrawal upon service of 90 Days notice. The traditional indeed until lately the Only Means of producing the enriched uranium needed to make atom bombs has been by the so called gaseous diffusion method which is both hideously expensive thus deterring the less wealthy nations and overhear singly conspicuous thus making concealment of the facilities difficult. The so called Centrifuge method is something else again relatively cheap relatively port Able. A signatory Power capable of coping with its conscience could go ahead and produce the stuff without attracting the at Tention of the International inspectors who in any Case Are armed with ambiguous Powers keep the Roth in its place John p. Roche i was greatly cheered recently to read that the Yale and Harvard faculties had recommended abolition of academic status for the Reserve officers training corps program follow ing a precedent set a bit earlier by the University of Pennsyl Vania. Twenty two years ago at Cornell i led a Campaign to abolish compulsory Roth and to eliminate the Para academic department of military science. It is ironic but the one outstanding precedent for Black studies departments free from University control the current demand of negro Mili Tants is the Roth universities have had no control Over the faculty of military science departments which became in fact rest Homes for tired colonels. My attitude toward the Rothback in 1947 was i confess largely emotional. During world War ii i had the misfortune of serving under several command ing officers who had won their spurs in Roth and i emerged from the War with the fixation that there had been nazi Money behind he whole Enterprise. When i went to Cornell in february 1946, i saw an actual Roth program in action for the first time my undergraduate col lege had none and within a year i was convinced that the soviets were now sponsoring if. Two years was then Manda tory but Linch about 90 per cent of the student population was composed of exempt veterans Only a Small number of Young sters were actually enrolled. On Lovely Ftp inf Days we used a amuse ourselves by watching the Roth in action there wot a kept of cops Quality about it. The of still do Bayonet Duful i Dumm Tell a Hill anyone knew that bayonets were for opening ration cans and they still taught them to throw grenades with that curious Over Arm pitch which had been Standard Drill until the marines in the Solo Mons began doing what came naturally throwing them like baseballs with results the Japa Nese never could bring them selves to believe. Now i am a broadminded tolerant Man. I have no particular objection to farces whether military or civilian but i have a vigorous conviction that a col lege or University should not knowingly sponsor farces except in a theater. My private View that Roth is a bad military joke at the taxpayers expense would therefore other factors aside Lead me to Call for its abolition. But beyond that assuming for purposes of argument that i am mistaken in my evaluation of the military effectiveness of Roth i still feel that even a useful efficient program should not be part of the regular curriculum of a University. C 1909, Kuna features Syndicate of prying about in the territory of the signatory nations. If on the other hand the treaty is to be taken seriously and we permit the Assumption to flow out of it that Only those nations that now have the bomb will Ever have it then it it a most remarkable piece of effrontery under the circumstances. Paul Henri Spaak of Belgium said to me on a recent occasion that he could not understand a Small nation signing such a pact or a Large nation asking a Small nation to sign such a pact in the absence of automatic As distinguished from political Guaran tees that atomic weapons would come to the Aid of a Small nation threatened by another atomic Power. But How is such a mechanical guarantee to be made Are we to have orbiting atomic platforms with programmed instructions to dump the bomb on Russia if Russia in Clayton Fritchey Vades Belgium but How could such a platform receive its instructions automatically it took me Many Yean to grasp that the reason acute europeans like de Gaulle distrust . Guarantees to defend Europe by use of the bomb if Nec Essary is that said europeans in american shoes would do no such thing. Can you imagine president de Gaulle of the United states triggering his minutemen and Polaris missiles in defense of president Nixon s France know ing what then would happen to la Vieille Gloire America that is the reasoning behind France s Force de Frappe. That is Why statesmen like spook oppose the treaty. What the soviet Union wants pure and simple is to prevent West Germany from getting the bomb because it is West Ger Many perhaps alone that has the stamina to use the damned thing of necessary to keep the soviet armies at Bay. The soviet Union accordingly desires maximum . Cooperation in the matter of keeping Germany from getting said bomb and since we Are a conscientious Power look at our efforts in Vietnam we Are Likely to keep our word discourage Germany from getting the bomb and in the even Cha soviet intelligence were to find the Ger mans clandestinely at work producing such a bomb and were thereupon to pounce upon her preemptively he United states would be left powerless mutter ing juridical formulae about the great treaty of 1969, and that would be the Ball game. It is comforting to think that or. Nixon has Henry Kissinger around. My guess is that part of the general political Settle ment will wag the proliferation treaty in the weeks ahead