Of Nukes and ‘Impotent Nations’
Nalaka Gunawardene
“Do you know about the only man to light a cigarette from a nuclear
explosion?” Sir Arthur C Clarke was fond of asking his visitors a few
years ago.
Clarke, the celebrated science fiction writer and space visionary who
died on March 19 aged 90, loved to ask such baffling questions.
In this instance, the answer was Theodore (Ted) Taylor, a leading
American nuclear scientist who designed atomic weapons in the 1950s and
1960s. Apparently he just held up a small parabolic mirror during a
nuclear test — the giant fireball was 12 miles away - and turned light
into heat.
“The moment I heard this, I wrote to Taylor, saying ‘Don’t you know
smoking is bad for your health?’” Clarke added with a chuckle.
In fact, he took an extremely dim view of both smoking and nuclear
weapons, and wanted to see them outlawed. But he was aware that both
tobacco and nukes formed strong addictions that individuals and nations
found hard to kick.
Years ago, Clarke had coined the slogan ‘Guns are the crutches of the
impotent’. In later years, he added a corollary: “High tech weapons are
the crutches of impotent nations; nukes are just the decorative chromium
plating.”
Living in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, the author of 2001: A Space
Odyssey was acutely aware of tensions between neighbouring India and
Pakistan - both nuclear weapon states.
British-born and calling himself an “ethnic human”, Clarke offered a
unique perspective on nuclear disarmament. His interest in the subject
could be traced back to his youth, when he served in the Royal Air Force
during the Second World War. As a radar officer, he was never engaged in
combat, but had a ringside view of Allied action in Europe. Shortly
after the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the War, he
wrote an essay “The Rocket and the Future of Warfare”.
In that essay, first published in the RAF Journal in 1946, he said:
“The only defence against the weapons of the future is to prevent them
ever being used. In other words, the problem is political and not
military at all. A country’s Armed Forces can no longer defend it; the
most they can promise is the destruction of the attacker....”
Arthur Clarke’s continued his advocacy against the weapons of mass
destruction to the very end. The lure and folly of nuke addiction is a
key theme in his last science fiction novel, The Last Theorem, to be
published later this year. He completed working on the manuscript,
co-written with the American author Frederik Pohl, only three days
before his demise.
From his island home for over half a century, Clarke was a keen
observer of the subcontinent’s advances in science and technology. He
personally knew some of the region’s top scientists - among them Indian
space pioneers Vikram Sarabhai and Yash Pal, and Pakistan’s Nobel
Laureate Abdus Salam.
Shortly after India carried out a nuclear weapons test in May 1998,
Clarke issued a brief statement saying: “Hindustan should be proud of
its scientists - but ashamed of its politicians.”
He chided the mass euphoria that seemed, for a while at least, to
sweep across parts of the subcontinent. He signed the statement as
“Arthur C Clarke, Vikram Sarabhai Professor, 1980”. That was a reference
to three months he spent at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in
Ahmedabad, in Western India, lecturing about peaceful uses of outer
space. It was the only time he held the title ‘professor’.
Clarke’s direct associations with India went back further. In the
early 1970s, he advised the Indian Space Research Organisation on the
world’s first use of communications satellites for direct television
broadcasting to rural audiences. Preparations for the Satellite
Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) Project were underway when
India carried out its first “peaceful explosion” of an atom bomb in
1974.
“I can still remember Vikram telling me how Indian politicians
pleaded with him to ‘build a teeny weeny (nuclear) bomb’,” Clarke
recalled in an interview in 2002.
He returned to the subject when delivering the 13th Nehru Memorial
Address in New Delhi in November 1986, which he titled ‘Star Wars and
Star Peace’. He critiqued the Strategic Defence Initiative (which
President Reagan called ‘Star Wars’) - a nuclear ‘umbrella’ over the
United States against missile attacks. Clarke argued that SDI was
conceptually and technologically flawed, and that its pursuit could hurt
America’s lead in other areas of space exploration.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi rejoined from the chair: “Forty years
ago, Dr Clarke said that the only defence against the weapons of the
future is to prevent them from being used.... Perhaps we could add to
that, we should prevent them from being built. It’s time that we all
heed his warning....I just hope people in other world capitals also are
listening...”
While campaigning against nuclear weapons, Clarke was equally
concerned about all offensive weapons. “Let’s not forget the
conventional weapons, which have been perfected over the years to
inflict maximum collateral damage,” he said in a video address to the
50th anniversary celebrations of the Pugwash Movement in October 2007.
“If you are at the receiving end, it doesn’t matter if such weapons are
‘smart’ or stupid...”
As tributes to Arthur C Clarke from all corners of the planet
confirm, he commanded the world’s attention and respect. His rational
yet passionate arguments against warfare were heard, though not always
heeded in the corridors of power and geopolitics.
For such people, he had the perfect last words from his own hero, H G
Wells: “You damn fools - I told you so!”
Nalaka Gunawardene is a Colombo-based writer and journalist who was
spokesman for Sir Arthur C Clarke in the past decade. He blogs at
http://movingimages.wordpress.com and can be contacted at
[email protected]. |