Thermonuclear Fusion, Not Nuclear War!
Before our next issue of EIR appears, the U.S. Congress is likely to have made the fateful decision, as to whether to launch aggressive war against Syria. The evidence is overwhelming that the wrong choice leads us straight to thermonuclear war.
But there is another alternative, one whose groundwork was laid way back in the 1960s, with the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, our last President with the full commitment to the American tradition of scientific and technological progress. That alternative is the leap to thermonuclear fusion power as the platform for a new economy of prosperity for all mankind.
The Kennedy Administration, and assassination, was truly a major turning point in the history of this nation, as Lyndon LaRouche has insisted. From the moment JFK was removed from office, the United States has gone down, down, down—economically, politically, and in foreign policy. The most obvious immediate change was the commitment to the war in Vietnam, a war the martyred President had been determined not to fight. But, with that, came a dramatic paradigm shift toward the imperial outlook, in which cooperation among nations for progress was replaced by continuous war, and investment for nuclear power development was scrapped in favor of green policies that guaranteed growing poverty, and accelerating death rates.
Can you remember when Americans were last inspired to commit our resources to achieving a great, positive goal for mankind? The enormous mobilization which President Kennedy announced, for the U.S. to put a man on the Moon within the decade of the 1960s, stands out as the unique example, the source of inspiration for most of the scientists we have today, and the last spur to scientific progress within our economy. While often cast in geopolitical terms, Kennedy's commitment to the space program was not one-upmanship, but a vision for cooperation among nations for the greater good of all, including world peace.
Had Kennedy's program prevailed, we would have had an expanded nuclear fission program, including to Third World nations, along with NAWAPA, and most likely, a leap to thermonuclear fusion power as well. Kennedy spoke to the identity of Americans as pioneers for scientific progress, which he understood to be a process that had no end. Can anyone imagine our more recent Presidents saying, and acting on, the following idea?
"Our problems are man-made—therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable—and we believe they can do it again...."
With Kennedy's death, the very opposite outlook took over, imposed by the British financial oligarchy that told us we were "small," we had to submit to our limitations and fate, we had to conserve and contract, not reach to the stars. The British monarchy's green ideology reached for our throats and contaminated our brains, especially those of our youth. We were on the way to killing our economy, our spirit, and ultimately, millions of people.
Today's crisis calls for the spirit of JFK—like that of his American patriotic predecessors—to be brought back to life by a relentless campaign for a scientific leap into a thermonuclear-fusion-driven economy. We hope recalling his story will help inspire you to join us in making that leap.
Thermonuclear fusion, not thermonuclear war!
