Mendelsohn Calls for End to Arms Race

America and the Soviet Union should commit themselves to deceleration of the arms race "with the urgency of any task in human history," Everett I. Mendelsohn, professor of History of Science, said last night before an audience of more than 200 at the Institute of Politics.

During an often heated debate with W. Scott Thompson, from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. Mendelsohn, an outspoken critic of arms proliferation, said "we have adopted a motto that bigger is better and even bigger is even better, but who's been served--certainly not our national security."

Describing arms proliferation as "setting the stage for mass murder and mass suicide," Mendelsohn blasted the Reagan administration's recent increases in defense spending and said the president's programs "do not even represent sound strategic thinking."

Thompson, who has written several books on national defense and has served as an advisor to the U.S. Navy, said he was "every bit as committed to control of the arms race as anybody else," but he added that the United States cannot negotiate with the Soviet Union until the two countries have a "parity" of military forces.

Thompson, who called the SALT talks "an acceptance by the United States of the number two position in the eyes of the Soviets," said America must commit itself to several years of rapid arms expansion to catch up to the Soviets. "We must face five, six, or seven years of a crisis situation, before we are equal in force," he said.

"You don't get out of a situation like we're in now by negotiating--the day we will be able to negotiate will be the day when the Soviet Union will take us seriously."

Guilt

After Mendelsohn had mentioned past U.S. military operations in Vietnam and Korea, and reminded the audience that the U.S. is the only nation to have used nuclear weapons, Thompson said. "Let's get off this national guilt trip--it's unbecoming of a serious country."