Word: meselson
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Although CB weapons work very well against crops, it is easy for human beings to protect themselves by wearing gas masks or entering shelters -- provided they are warned. Only in a surprise attack, then, are the weapons effective. "It puts an enormous premium on the low blow," Meselson says...
...unpredictable, uncontrollable nature of this new style of war has more than just military import. "One step toward controlling war in society," Meselson suggests optimistically, "is to move towards weapons we can control...
There are no such guarantees for CB arms, Meselson maintains. Although they are not cheap now, they will be once the pioneering stage is completed. The result, he suggests, could be disastrous. "Today, a madman in America might climb to the top of a tower for a shooting spree, or put a bomb in an airplane. But if CB weaponry were conventional, maniacs would constitute an enormous threat. An insane man could wipe out New York City...
...would seem possible, of course, for the United States to develop a formula for inexpensive CB weapons without letting the secret out to the public. But once it is known that such a formula exists, people are more likely to have the initiative to duplicate it. Meselson does not carry his argument this far -- he simply implies that if we must have mass annihilators, expensive ones are less undesirable than cheap ones...
...Meselson believes that this argument breaks down when carefully examined. First, he says, one must realize that lethal and non-lethal are poles on a continuous spectrum of the effects of weapons. A weapon which is non-lethal can either temporarily incapacitate (like tear gas) or permanently maim. As long as it does not kill, it is non-lethal...