The Great Nuclear Debate

Abstract

The last few months have witnessed a healthy increase in public concern about the state of our security in general and about nuclear arms and nuclear arms control agreements in particular. Since I have tried for years to stir up popular interest in these matters, I can only cheer. We cannot hope to restore a strong, confident, bipartisan foreign policy- and surely that is a national objective of primordial importance until there has been a thorough, civil, and disciplined debate about what our foreign policy is for-what it is supposed to accomplish, and by what means. Such a debate should produce a new state of public opinion, the only legitimate source of policy in a democracy.