ACCORDING to Jonathan Colman and B Birch (Letters, June 21), nuclear weapons have kept the peace since August, 1945. I would ask both of them where have they been since then.

There have been countless wars in which it is estimated that more than 50 million were killed. Since the end of the 1939-45 war there has only been one year in which a British soldier or soldiers have not been killed in a foreign country.

Former US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wrote: "To make the country shoulder the burden of maintaining a huge military machine, it was necessary to build up an emotional atmosphere tantamount to a war mentality; it was also necessary to paint a picture of external threat."

And so the arms dealers live a hedonistic life-style, paid for by the misguided and naive people who have been convinced that nuclear weapons have and will maintain the peace on earth. Poppycock and balderdash!

I am in my 81st year and still compos mentis. No-one will ever convince me that the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved lives.

LESLIE JONES, Aviemore Close, Audley, Blackburn.

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