No apologies

Chauncey Starr, Vice Chairman of the Electric Power Research Institute, has been advocating a name change: uranium power instead of nuclear power. The idea is to gain public acceptance for nuclear power by disassociating it from nuclear weapons.

But it is the third point that is the all-important one. It is no more wrong to defend freedom with the most effective weapons than it is to give people the safest and most abundant electric power. Anybody who disassociates himself from the first will not gain public acceptance for the other, for he is too close to the mentality of one who says "He is a Jew, but a good guy all the same."

And we will go further. In the United States today, there is no energy more important than the energy for defense, whether directly in weapons or indirectly in strengthening the country's infrastructure to withstand embargoes or outright military assaults.

The reason why defense has become so important is not just that the US may be losing its technical capacity to win a military confrontation, but more important, that America's will to resist is being dangerously sapped by demagogues who prey on the uninformed. On the very anniversary of the Soviet viceroys' assault on the Polish people, the Congressional Chamberlains are clowning round the MX missile as their spiritual forefathers in America, Britain and France clowned round effective defense in the 1930's.

That is why we make no apology for printing items on energy and technology for defense, as we do in this issue by briefly explaining the Dense Pack idea. And we will continue to bring such items, distorted or outright censored by the mass media, as promised and implied by the subtitle on our masthead.

If the defense of the Free World is not ensured, and if the will to resist evil is not upheld, energy will cease to be an issue. The State with a capital S will build nuclear plants without containment buildings, and the District Committee will allot your home a tread or windmill; and with a servile smile, you will thank the Party and Government for their kindness, for otherwise you will not get your kids admitted to High School.

And that is the real reason why we oppose the name change: You stand up for what is right, and you stand up fully; you do not fight the enemies of mankind with Madison Avenue gimmicks.