‘Atom-ramp Germany’ bristling with rockets The West German magazine Stern does not belong to the class of journals whose political correspondents are in the habit of reading for the purpose of keeping well informed about conditions in their own country. Any issue of the magazine consists of more than one-half advertisements expertly laid out in color, and contains anywhere be- tween 230 & 250 pages. One copy . weighs in at well over one-half kilo- gram. ‘‘But it happens once per annum that an excellent article gets in’’, re- ports one of our German friends in the FRG. ‘‘ There was, for instance, one of the best articles ever written about berumsverboth"’ (the repressive FRG legislation which bans progressives from working in a wide variety of fields — Ed.) This year the most excellent — if not to say indispensable — article, ap- peared in issue number 9 — on Feb- ruary 19th. Covering 12 pages laid out in text and pictures was the fact that West Germany has a larger stockpile of nuclear weapons than any other area of the world. On the map which Stern pub- lished there appear nuclear stockpiles, launching pads for nuclear missiles and command posts for the anticipated nu- clear war, all strung out along a wide arc all the way from the Danish border to the Alps. There are at least a hundred of these nuclear bases clearly marked on the Stern map. The researched report was prepared by journalist Wolf Perdelwitz. Stern’s title page is rightfully given over to an exposé ofa nuclear missile with the text *‘Atom-Rampe Germany — How the Federal Republic bristles with nuclear _ weapons, where they are camouflaged, and what dangers hang over us’’. Wolf Perdelwitz has not succeeded in establishing the exact number of atomic weapons involved. It could be 10,000. In Bonn, they speak unofficially of 5,000. According to equally unofficial information from Washington, 2,500 are for the Bundeswehr, 500 for the other European NATO forces and 2,000 for the United States forces. But the Bundeswehr general staff have members who believe the Americans have at least 2,000 warheads of their own on German soil. If we take only the Pershing missiles which are concentrated in'the southern part of West Germany, both the Bun- deswehr and the USA forces can “‘within minutes send away around 36,000 kilotons against already-pro- grammed targets inside the GDR and the East European States’’, writes Wolf Perdelwitz. One kiloton carries an exp- losive power of one thousand tons of conventional explosives (TNT). Officially the Bundeswehr cannot in practice release their nuclear weapons until authorized by the U.S. But the U.S. soldiers are present around the clock, ready to hand over the code needed to release the most crucial of all weapons.” This is how matters stand now, be- fore implementation of the 1979 NATO decision to place 108 Pershing 2 mis- siles and 464 cruise missiles in Western Europe, mainly in West Germany. All this is just now beginning to cause consternation and anger among the people in West Germany, while the reactionary military circles have learned nothing from 1918 and 1945. —From article by Doctor John Takman eit ~ in the Swedish paper Norrskensflamman. Translation by B.M. = SCHLESWIG: Se > A Lubeck a .@ Fo HAMBURG A A Yeu A -BREMENS +4 - B ‘w NORDRHEIN- Ay a WESTEALEN? ~' ~ & A.) NIEDERSACHSEN A The FRG has a larger stockpile of nuclear weapons than any other area in the world Se Short-range missiles. ce Tar 1A — medium- range missiles. ; eq Bases for nuclear bombers. A __ Nuclear storage depots and command +4 for Nike- Hercules missiles. International focus By TOM MORRIS America’s own | private war The Reagan shooting again raises the argument in the U.S. to ban handguns. Today, ac- cording to best estimates, 55 million Americans own one — not counting those carried by security forces. ~The clichés are endless. Fi- gures and data on handgun availability pour out from all sources. To grasp the immensity of the problem, consider this: 400,000 Americans have died in handgun shootings since 1963. That exceeds the total battle deaths suffered by the U.S. in World War II, the Ko- rean War, the Vietnam War, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican- American War and the Spanish-American War. It’s more than died in either the First World War or the American Civil War. Estimates are that 100 mil- lion U.S. private citizens will own a handgun by the year 2000. One handgun is pur- chased in the U.S: every 13 seconds. The U.S. handgun murder figure is four times the total Canadian battle deaths in all ty, PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 17, 1981 —Page 8 The KKK Youth Corps training to kill. wars we’ve fought (Northwest Rebellion, South African War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War). ~ Remember this next time you hear Reagan, Haig or someone else preach to the world about America’s moral leadership. Haig: Afool - or not too smart? Alexander Haig seems to do everything by numbers. A couple of weeks back he told a House committee the USSR has a “hit list’? for Central America: ‘‘First they got Nicaragua, then they aimed at El Salvador, then Guatemala, then Honduras, in that order Very precise. Haig’s penchant for sequ- ence carried over days later when he told an astonished na- tion hours after Reagan was shot: ‘**Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the presi- dent, vice-president and Sec- retary of State in that order More precision. Now Haig is in the Middle East. Again his military mind does its act. To allay Israeli fears that selling the Saudis sophisticated aircraft and fighter components is not in their best interests, Haig says the materiel is to “prevent Soviet expansion in the Gulf area’’.. _ Surely Haig isn’t trying to convince the Israélis that Saudi Arabia (no matter how well armed) could deter ‘‘Soviet _ expansion’’ anywhere. Haig’s basic problem is he deals in fantasies. There is no “Soviet hit list’? in Latin America — there is an ir- reversable tide of national lib- eration. The Secretary of State is not “third’’ in line for the White House throne, he’s fifth. There is no ‘‘Soviet- expansionism’’ in the Persian Gulf. There is U.S. expansion there (in Kenya, Somalia, Yeman). And, there is oil. Perhaps describing Alexan- der Haig as a fool might offend some. But we can certainly agree with a Toronto -colum- _ nist who suggested he’s not too. smart. And now the real Washington, DC... If Ronald Reagan were to look out the window at his neighbors, he might find that all is not well in the District of Columbia. The 67-square mile federal district has big trou- bles. e 90% of DC’s unemployed are Black and the Black un- employment rate is over 17%. For Black and Chicano youth it’s 75-80%. ‘e@ DC has the lowest life ex- pectancy for Blacks in the USA (Black males, 58.5 years; Black females, 68.3 years). e The average cost of anew ~ home is $119,000 for the shell. e 100,000 people, mostly Black and Latino, have been forced out in the last decade and the Metropolitan Board of _ Trade has introducéd a plan, ‘Year 2,000’’, to drive out an- other 100,000 by 1999 — to be accomplished by driving up rents, etc.. e Hospital costs rise yearly 50% more than they do nation- ally; the average cost of a hos- pital room per day is $350 — $700 per day for intensive care. The tuberculosis rate is four times the national average. e 147 corporations list pro- fits of over $1-million but have paid no taxes in DC since 1976. And 51% of the land in DC is used by the federal govern- ment and is tax-exempt. e DC taxpayers pay $491 each above the national aver- age. _If the president’s budget cuts get adopted the district could well be classified a dis- aster area.