    "...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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