They’re back. Nuclear arms racers are once again boosting Utah’s role as a contributor to the tools of Armageddon. Operating from its new facilities in Roy and Clearfield, Northrop Grumman recently announced success developing the first stage of next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of killing millions of people in minutes.
It’s been four decades since leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told military, industrial and political arms race proponents that their weapons weren’t welcome here. At issue then was the MX system of 200 mobile missiles destined for deployment across the Great Basin valleys of Utah and Nevada.
The 1981, LDS First Presidency’s MX statement held that “Our fathers came to this western area to establish a base from which to carry the gospel of peace to the peoples of the earth. It is ironic, and a denial of the very essence of that gospel, that in this same general area there should be constructed a mammoth weapons system potentially capable of destroying much of civilization.”
Reaction to the LDS statement was swift. The Great Basin deployment scheme was dead. Legislators scrambled to find a Plan B. Utah missile makers Morton Thiokol, Hercules (now ATK) and the Pentagon had to settle for 50 MX missiles placed in existing silos in Wyoming. Words penned by Spencer Kimball, Gordon Hinckley and colleagues, with counsel from Ed Firmage, resonated everywhere.
Serious civilian pushback against the nuclear arms race had come from conservative Utah and was heard in capitals around the world. Fast forward to 2021. Northrop Grumman acquired ATK and, with a gift of $13.3 billion from the Pentagon budget, has begun the process of building 400 new ICBMs that could generate up to 5,000 new jobs. Chamber of Commerce member scores!
That’s a generous read. But resurgence of the nuclear missile crowd in Utah can also be read as failure at the local, national and global levels. Replacing the 400 existing ICBMs that have lasted five decades with a new generation of such weapons ensures that the nuclear curse will plague future generations of Utahns and all peoples of the earth.
The U.S. and Russia currently have more than 11,000 nuclear weapons between us, each warhead with a destructive power of multiple Hiroshimas. Had we and the other nuclear nations honored the Non-Proliferation Treaty we signed in 1968, nuclear weapons could be gone today. Chinese, French and British weapons (850 total) were part of the deal to stop other countries from acquiring nukes.
But greed trumped morals. The first five nuclear-armed nations kept their weapons and watched the radioactive circle grow as India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea followed our lead. Why should Iran or Brazil or any country be denied “the bomb” to defend its citizens? Their Northrop Grumman counterparts would gladly profit by creating 5,000 new missile jobs.
LDS Presidents Kimball and Hinckley are gone. So too are the Episcopal, Catholic and other faith community leaders who resisted the nuclear Mammon. Leaders who stood against what President Dwight Eisenhower once called the “cross of iron” that MX meant for Utah. The existential ethical questions remain, however, and have resurfaced in ways that challenge the values of our community and its leadership.
What’s to be done? Back in the days when MX threatened, Utahns signed petitions and phoned decision-makers. Civic groups and churches held forums and sent resolutions to the governor, legislators, and the U.S. president. Members of the Japanese American community understood the atomic bomb connection and took action.
Others recognized that nuclear weapons harm the environment, from uranium mining through testing to waste disposal. MX was about spending tax dollars on more weapons to join the multitude already in existence. Some businesses expected an economic downside even as a few enjoyed subsidized profits. And it meant another step toward the nuclear abyss. An admission of failure as a society.
A contract for new missiles was no cause for celebration four decades ago, nor is it today. What worked to stop the MX program then can stop the production of 400 more missiles here in 2022. Each of us as individuals and members of community organizations can make that happen.
Stanley Holmes is a retired educator and participated in the MX campaign.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3eITESh
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