Speakers Call U.S. Unaware Of Increasing Nuclear Hazard

Calling NATO's planned deployment of new missiles in Europe "the Cuban missile crisis in reverse," two British social historians Friday evening urged the United States to become more concerned about the consequences of nuclear war.

E.P. and Dorothy Thompson, currently guest lecturers at Brown University, made their remarks to nearly 600 students at Sanders Theater.

The Thompsons are leaders in European Nuclear Disarmament (END), a British-based organization which began in April 1980 as a reaction to the NATO decision.

Although END is new, the Thompsons said it represents growing British opposition to nuclear armament. A recent poll indicated that 42 per cent of the British public favors "unilateral missile disbandment"--up from only 17 percent last year.

While Great Britain and other European nations are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility of nuclear war, Mr. Thompson said the United States and the Soviet Union continue to ignore the issue. He cited recent U.S.-USSR discussion on limiting the nuclear theater and noted that it excluded any European input. Mr. Thompson labeled the conclave the "meeting of the born-again Christians and the still-born Marxists."