Those of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s remember, as if it were yesterday, the climate of the Cold War between The Soviet Union (Russia and its then-communist empire) and the West, a dark climate in which we all lived in the terrifying knowledge that the hostile relations between the world’s nuclear giants could, at any time, boil over into a nuclear holocaust capable of wiping out civilization as the world knew it. In fact, such an atomic war scenario could, we were assured, lead to a “nuclear winter” in which humankind would be one of the many species that would end up becoming extinct. Planet Earth would be rendered a hostile environment in which only the most adaptable of species—cockroaches and rats, we were told—would be able to survive and dominate. Advocates of the nuclear defense industry always argued that the best defense was a good offense and that maintaining a “nuclear balance” (read: arms race) between Russia and the United States was the only way to ensur...
Versión en español:
Author Roberto Vivo comments on wars past and present, on the world’s great peacemakers and on the pathway to global peace. His basic philosophy: In a world where 9 out of every 10 victims of armed conflict are civilians, war is no longer a viable political alternative. Indeed, it is the ultimate crime against humanity. If rising generations are to have a future, the key will lie in world peace. War is the pathway to oblivion.