ARMED FORCES: Cut-Rate Defense

ARMED FORCES Cut-Rate Defense "The day is coming," said Chairman Brien McMahon of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy last week, "when the quantity of atomic weapons we are capable of making could be sufficient, beyond any question, to serve as a paramount instrument of victory." Within three years, he told the Senate, atomic bombs could be flowing into the stockpiles at mass-production speed, each one costing less than a heavy tank (about $200,000). By concentrating on the atomic weapons, said McMahon, the U.S. could safely cut back its conventional defenses and buy security for half the present $60...

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