When it is detonated, it will produce enough lethal radioactive fallout so that within ten months, the surface of the Earth will be as dead as the moon!
Ah, come on DeSadeski, that's ridiculous. Our studies show that even the worst fallout is down to a safe level after two weeks.
You've obviously never heard of cobalt thorium G!
[pauses]
Well, what about it?
Cobalt thorium G has a radioactive half-life of ninety three years. If you take, say, fifty H-bombs in the hundred megaton range and jacket them with cobalt thorium G, when they are exploded they will produce a doomsday shroud. A lethal cloud of radioactivity which will encircle the earth for ninety-three years!
Ah, what a load of commie bull. I mean, after all...!
I'm afraid I don't understand something, Alexei. Is the Premier threatening to explode this if our planes carry out their attack?
No, sir! It is not a thing a sane man would do. The doomsday machine is designed to trigger itself automatically.
But surely you can disarm it somehow.
No, it is designed to explode if any attempt is ever made to untrigger it.
It's an obvious Commie trick, Mr. President. We are wasting valuable time! (stumbles) Look at the big board, they're getting ready to clobber us!
But this is absolute madness, Ambassador. Why on earth would you build such a thing?
There were those of us who fought against this. But in the end, we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. And at the same time, our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our Doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a Doomsday gap.
This is preposterous! I've never approved of anything like that!
Our source was the New York Times.
