"...we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry
of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men
and women are directly engaged in the defence establishment. We
annually spend on military security more than the net income of all
United States corporations.

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large
arms industry is new in the American experience. The total
influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every
city, every state house, every office of the federal government. We
recognise the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not
fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and
livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our
society.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military -industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must
never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or
our democratic processes."

INTERNATIONAL CONCERNS OVER NEW WEAPONS

The United Nations was established in 1945 with the aim of "saving
succeeding generations from the scourge of war". In 1975 the
General Assembly considered a draft first proposed by .the Soviet
Union: "Prohibition of the Development and Manufacture of New Types
of Weapons of Mass Destruction and New Systems of Such Weapons".

In 1979 the Soviet Union added a list of some types of potential
weapons of mass destruction:

1) Radiological weapons (using radioactive materials) which could
produce harmful effects similar to those of a nuclear explosion;

2) Particle beam weapons, based on charged or neutral particles, to
affect biological targets;

3) Infrasonic acoustic radiation weapons;

4) Electromagnetic weapons operating at certain radio-frequency
radiations which could have injurious effects on human organs.[12]

In response, the US and other Western nations stalled. They gave a
long, convoluted reason, but the result was the same.

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