Enter the H-Bomb

Britain announced last week that it can and soon will produce its own hydrogen bombs. The decision was announced in a tough-minded White Paper on Defense.

"Communist policies may appear, from time to time, more accommodating. But Communist actions have so far provided no real ground for believing that the threat to the Free World has sensibly diminished," said the white paper. "[Communist] military strength continues to grow at an impressive rate . . . The Soviet Union and her Eastern European satellites have some 6,000,000 men under arms. On the German front, the Soviet army could be increased to well over 100 divisions within 30 days.

"The consciences of civilized nations must naturally recoil from the prospect of using nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, in the last resort, most of us must feel that determination to face the threat of physical devastation, even on the immense scale which must now be foreseen, is manifestly preferable to militant Communism . . . Moreover, such a show of weakness or hesitation to use all the means of defense . . . would not reduce the risk. All history proves the contrary."

Ready When Required. Debonair Harold Macmillan, the Tory Defense Minister (and wartime political adviser to General Eisenhower in North Africa), pridefully pointed out that Britain had figured out the H-bomb "without American or outside help." Then, in a pointed statement that would have disturbed many Britons had it come from Washington, Macmillan told a press conference: "I hope [the bomb] will be ready when the Russians require it."

Along with the H-bomb decision were "far-reaching effects." Britain's new $4.3 billion military budget follows the U.S. pattern of reducing overall expenditures (by some $286 million) while stepping up the emphasis on air power, the atom and electronic warfare. Main features: Air Force: The R.A.F., for the first time, will get the lion's share of British defense spending. Its "primary task'': to build up a striking force of atom-bomber squadrons as the "main contribution to the deterrent." The air defense of Britain will rest on delta- and swept-wing jets like the Javelin and the Hunter. But in a supplementary report which unconvincingly boasted that "this country has an effective air defense," the Defense Ministry as good as admitted that most of the R.A.F.'s fighters are too slow to catch Soviet twin-jet bombers.

Guided Missiles: Britain openly admitted that it is behind the U.S.--and, presumably, the Soviet Union--in the development of ground-to-air guided missiles. But it considers itself well advanced in air-to-air guided weapons, and is also developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM) with hydrogen warheads.

Army: "The nuclear weapon," said the white paper, "may discourage overt armed intervention by the Communist powers, such as occurred in Korea . . . but equally, it may encourage the indirect approach through infiltration and subversion." Britain is creating a mobile strategic reserve, ready to be flown from England to any new threatened outpost. The total cost and size of the British army will be substantially reduced.

Navy: Many older ships will be broken up, but in their place the navy will build "guided-weapon ships," equipped with atomic guided missiles.

Civil Defense: The effects of a hydrogen-bomb attack on Britain, said the white paper matter-of-factly, would reduce life to "a struggle for survival of the grimmest kind." Britain therefore will completely overhaul its home defense plans, spending an extra $196 million and recruiting 48 mobile battalions of specially trained servicemen, ready for rescue work at a moment's notice.

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