SCORPIONS M

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000200210013-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 28, 2003
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: September 15, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Releaa 2003/11/19: CIA-RDP70
Scorpions
By George C. Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
T HE FORCED MARCH of nuclear
technology has brought the United
States and the Soviet Union to the foot
of a new mountain of weapons. They
have the choice of going on up that
mountain-perhaps toward an Arma-
geddon-or veering off.
The two nuclear superrowers-lik-
ened by the late Robert Oppenheimer
to two scorpions in a bottle-for the
first time face the c h o i c e as near
equals. There is no "missile gap" on
either side.
In fact, both the United States and
the Soviet Union are on the verge of
producing doomsday w e a p o n s that
may so upset the present balance of
terror that it can never be restored.
This fact is adding a sense of urgency
to arguments in favor of a treaty lim-
iting the offensive and defensive mis-
siles on both sides.
Both Sides Are Interested
PRESIDENT JOHNSON wants to
start negotiating. that treaty as
soon as he observes an appropriate
mourning period for the Czechs. The
Soviets, for their part passed the word
after their invasion of Czechoslovakia
33000200210013-9
that they are still, interested in discuss-
ing a missile freeze.
If such a treaty cannot be negoti-
ated, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
have a clutch of proposals for bombers,
missiles and other new strategic weap-
ons that would easily add another $100
billion to the military budget, Vietnam
war or not.
Their Soviet counterparts also are
poised for a big advance in weaponry.
They have installed far fewer antibal-
listic missiles around Moscow than
U.S. intelligence leaders predicted but,
unbraked by a t r e a t y, they could
plunge ahead with an extensive ABM
system that would force the United
States to take more countermeasures.
Unlike automobiles, weapons take
eight or more years to get from the
drawing board into steel. Both super-
powers have now progressed to the
point of readiness to put the latest
models into production. But, happily
far those who want to keep new weap-
ons strictly on paper, the ability of
each side to negotiate from strength
may make it easier to reach a missile
freeze agreement.
Intercontinental ballistic mis-
,siles are a case in point. American and
Soviet leaders know that they are
about even in ICBMs. The United
and personal integrity are the only
qualifications requisite for a Supreme
Court Justice. He is' sadly in error.
There is a third indispensable qualifi-
cation.
No matter what other gifts or attain-
ments one may possess, he is not quali-
fied to be a Supreme Court Justice un-
less he is both able and willing to sub-
ject himself to the self-restraint which
enables him to accept the Constitution
as the rule for the government of his t
judicial action and makes him refrain
from attempting to revise or update
that instrument according to his per- i
sonal views as to what is desirable
when he undertakes to interpret it.
Check of Self-Restraint
CHIEF JUSTICE STONE certainly
had this truth in mind when he af-
firmed in United States vs. Butler, 297
U.S. 1, 78-79, "that while unconstitu.
tional exercise of power by the execu-
tive and legislative branches of the
government is subject to judicial re-
straint, the only, check upon our own
exercise of power is our own sense of
self-restraint."
Some men possess the ability and
Approved For Release 2003/11/19 CIA-RDP70B0033OR0002002"01(3-9xercise self-re.
straint in judicial offices; others -do not.
The reason for this is revealed by
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