Nuclear war: preventable or inevitable?

Abstract

Smith reports at length on the fourth meeting of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, held in Helsinki in 1984 and attended by 450 doctors from 53 countries. Among the topics addressed by the delegates were the preventability of nuclear war, the threat of nuclear winter, the expenditure on atomic weapons of funds that could be used for health programs, the effects on children of the threat of nuclear conflict, and the danger of accidental nuclear war. The meeting concluded with a letter sent from the conference to the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union.