Ovens in the Making.

The awesome new weapon that burst upon the world a third of a century ago brought birth as well as death--the birth of a realization that humanity could no longer tolerate the possibility of total war.

That realization flickered brightly but briefly in the postwar years. The funeral pyres of Hiroshima and Nagasaki illuminated the vision of a world that might somehow be safeguarded against the ultimate weapon. People spoke hopefully of a new world order. But even as they spoke, governments--led by our own--turned to the making of new atomic bombs.

Public awareness of the horrible dangers confronting us in the atomic age has been dwindling since then. Today it is almost gone. If that consciousness dies, the human experiment itself may soon follow--and with it, much of our planet. We are at the edge of the abyss.

The three articles of this issue represent an attempt to rekindle the embers of dread, outrage, and hope. Dread over what the Bomb will surely do when it is put to the test. Outrage over the way we have allowed it to warp us as a people, propelling us toward the inexorable destruction of ourselves and others. Hope that our country and our world can be reclaimed even at this late hour.

There can be no defense for Chicago or any other city in the event of nuclear war. Nor does it matter much whether the weapon is a superbomb or one of the tens of thousands of others, large and...