THE REAL DANGERS

The danger of these Soviet satellites does not primarily come from their radioactive fission products; it comes from three other directions.

First, from their use as a targeting weapon against the United States; the US has no equivalent weapons in orbit. [And even if it did, that argument, as Peter Schwartz puts it in the Dec. 24 Intellectual Activist, would still contain "the self-contradiction of the 'arms control' theories. It evades a crucial distinction: Russia's missiles are designed to threaten and destroy liberty, while America's are designed to preserve it... Is it sane for the police to negotiate with murderers on how many weapons each party may possess, when the criminals are the very reason why the police are armed to begin with?"]

The second danger comes from the consistent Soviet pattern of deception. These satellites are claimed to have exclusively scientific purposes; the erratic behavior of the satellite noted in early January was "planned" and the USSR was "in control;" finally, yes, the reactor would break up, but no harm could come from it.

The third danger does not come from the Soviets, whom after all, nobody is likely to mistake for a club of Sunday School teachers; it comes from the broadcasting monopoly which censors the information given above, available to all competent reporters, and instead feeds you superstitious garbage about radioactivity.

[Sources: The most important one was an interview of the remarkable expert on the Soviet space program James Oberg, consultant to NASA and author of the outstanding book Red Star in Orbit (Random House 1981, $12.95). The only official document seems to be the report on the Canadian crash, Operation Morning Light, No. NV 198, EY 76C 081183, Sept. 1978, $6 from NTIS, Springfield, VA 22161. Public Information of the Dept. of Defense proved polite, but useless, in distinct contrast to the Press Division of the Dept. of Energy, which proved useless only.]