"Thank you for your letter of July 6 and for the interesting proposal which you enclose. I was intrigued by your suggestion as to the parentage of the proposal and curious to see what would be the offspring of such miscegenation. It seemed to me, however, that Kahn's genes were dominant and mine recessive. One of the things that I have found strange about Kahn is that, although it would be an act of madness to initiate a nuclear war, he seems to think that, once started, it could be conducted on purely rational lines by means of telephonic communication between the White House and the Kremlin. I thought I found something of the same spirit in your paper. While mutual hostility between East and West remains as it is at present, your universal deterrent would be an object of constant intrigue, inclining now to one side and now to the other. I think, also, that there would be unwillingness to supply the funds necessary for the deterrent. I do not believe that there is any road to nuclear safety short of convincing the governments of East and West that any agreement is preferable to war, even if it involves serious sacrifices, probably from both parties. I am sorry not to be kinder to my supposed infant, but I cannot convince myself that there is any feasible short-cut."