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THE REAL DANGER LIES NOT IN TESTS LIKE France's in the South Pacific [WEAPONS, Sept. 18] but in the full-scale use of warheads, scattered around the globe in many places and poorly controlled, that could be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Also more dangerous than bomb testing are the ethnic and religious wars, like the one raging in the Balkans. Such wars have claimed many more lives than Hiroshima or Nagasaki. We need not only a nuclear-free world but a world free of civilian atomic garbage. And above all, we need a world free of poor leadership. It has been said, if we seriously want to disarm, we must first disarm the spirit. ROGER FERDINAND LOUIS FAURE Sao Paulo, Brazil
FRANCE, A HIGHLY DEVELOPED NATION with a great heritage and a unique culture, has deliberately inflicted severe damage on the earth and its inhabitants by carrying out another nuclear test. Why? In the past, numerous tests were performed by various nations because people didn't know better, and politicians, in their anxiety to be part of the nuclear club, didn't care. Today people do know better, and politicians should care. A nation that wants to be respected by others around the globe can no longer undertake nuclear tests. How would the French feel if the explosions took place off the Atlantic coast of France? SIEGFRIED MAIERSEN Sachsenheim, Germany
THE FUTURE WILL PROVE THAT FRANCE was right in conducting its nuclear tests. A lot of people agree with President Jacques Chirac and respect his decision to carry out the test, despite the hysteria that Greenpeace and others are trying to spread everywhere. Don't imagine that the French people are against the nuclear testing. Did you see 1 million French in the streets of Paris demanding the cessation of the nuclear tests in French Polynesia? No, you did not, and you will not, for the truth is that we agree with the decision of our President. NICOLAS NOLF Grenoble, France
I WOULD ASK CHIRAC, "EXACTLY FOR whom does France need a nuclear deterrent?" Surely, the problems of rampant terrorism and growing public distaste for your political hubris cannot be affected by such tactics. The world does not need a Western Vladimir Zhirinovsky. MICHAEL ZUCKER Tel Aviv Via E-mail
WHILE FRANCE IS TAKING ALL THE BLAME and is the focus of protests for raising nuclear fears, China has kept on performing underground A-bomb tests, and does not get even one-tenth the media attention the French experiments do. Why are the Greenpeace activists always ready to move forward and promote all kinds of demonstrations when the event involves a Western corporation or government, particularly the French? And why do they keep a low profile or even a significative silence when similar actions are performed by a socialist nation like China? Come on, guys, if you really mean no nukes, then make it no nukes at all, not just no French nukes. ENRIQUE VAZQUEZ Madrid Via E-mail
I WONDER IF THE FRENCH SHOULDN'T just be left to their own devices. After all, the Mururoa area appears seismically stable, and the explosion is deep enough to guarantee safety. Will long-term radiation leaks result? Whatever is strong enough to bring radiation to the surface is surely cataclysmic enough to make it superfluous! MATHEW CLARK Roodepoort, South Africa