Contra Pipes

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I would like to respond briefly to comments made by Professor Richard Pipes concerning the Nobel Peace Prize and IPPNW [International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War].

First, Professor Pipes asserts that physicians have no competence in the political arena. He implies that nuclear policy should be left to the arms control experts and politicians.

Nuclear weapons policy has been left to the so-called experts and politicians for 40 years. In that time the nuclear arsenals of the US and the USSR have grown to comprise 50,000 nuclear weapons with an explosive power of 15,000 megatons (5,000 times the explosive power used in all of World War II). Now the arms race is headed into space. So much for the ability of experts, such as Professor Pipes, and politicians to control this deadly game.

IPPNW physicians do not purport to be arms control experts. They do however, speak as experts on the medical consequences of the arms race and nuclear war. It is for this effort to educate the world public that IPPNW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The nuclear arms race is a problem with important political dimensions--but it is also the most profound public health issue of our time.

Professor Pipes also states that the Soviet physicians affiliated with IPPNW are government spokesmen. It is well understood that the Soviet physicians are not as independent of their government as are the American physicians. This is a reflection of our different ideologies and political systems. But we reject the notion that American physicians should not, therefore, work with their Soviet colleagues to educate the public on the medical consequences of nuclear war. We must accept these differences and pursue our mutual interest in survival for we are all linked by a common fate.

IPPNW rarely takes a position on particular arms control proposals. When it does, it directs its appeal to both the US and the USSR. One month before the Soviet Union announced its moratorium on nuclear testing, IPPNW formally appealed to President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev to halt nuclear testing. The Soviets have responded and we hope the US will do the same. A mutual moratorium on nuclear testing is in the self interest of both nations, indeed the world. It is a critical first step in slowing, and ultimately reversing this nuclear madness. Peter A. Zheutlin   Director, Public Affairs   IPPNW