Engineer Memoirs
talking every day with the top people in international security affairs. I started looking
at these strategic issues much more. It didn't take long to realize that the dimensions
of nuclear war had changed a lot from the time that I remembered back in the 1950s
and 1960s.
Q:
Were you surprised at all when you looked at it from that perspective?
A:
Not really. It was a subject, paradoxically, that I really hadn't dwelled on. I had been
so involved with the mechanics of it that I hadn't really thought about the overall
implications. I have not changed my mind about nuclear power. I think we are making
a great mistake to de-emphasize it. Articles are being written that the civilian uses of
nuclear power were grossly mismanaged. I thought this was so at the time, but I did not
foresee such dire consequences for the industry.
My conclusion now is that, even though nuclear war would be catastrophic, we still
have to have a deterrent capability. All the proposals for disarming do no good, because
the real test is whether or not our posture deters war. People more expert than I point
out that the danger is not nuclear war; the danger is war. If you have no war, you are
not going to have nuclear war. Once war starts, you have the risk that it will escalate.
Q:
So in August of 1975 you chose to go back to the Corps of Engineers.
A:
Yes. I had to go, but Dodd Starbird--God bless him--had been stalling this.
Q:
He did not want you to go back.
A:
No, he thought I was doing a good job, and he kept procrastinating. So I finally went
in and told him that I wanted to go. I had been hoping that he would get the idea. I
didn't find it easy to go in and tell him I would rather go back to OCE than to continue
to work for him. I felt that wasn't considerate, and it wasn't good form.
Director of Civil Works, 19751977
But he was very nice about about it. When I went in to see him, he picked up the
telephone and made an appointment with Seamans right then and there. We were out
at Germantown, and he got in his car and drove downtown to where Seamans was
working, to see him. Then I left fairly soon.
Q:
I was going to ask you whether Jack Morris picked you as his successor, but you said
Gribble was the one.
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