CARL McCoy in his pro-atomic weapons letter (May 13) states: “This is a common statement from people who don’t seem to see the alternative of being paralysed at the mercy of others”; it appears he believes the 186 countries who don’t possess nuclear weapons live in perpetual fear and trepidation that one of the nine which do will wipe their country from the face of the Earth. The fact is that other than the United States using two devices against a beaten Japan in the Second World War, but in reality to demonstrate its power to the USSR, nobody has ever used one in anger; this despite US armed forces being involved in conflicts on almost every continent ever since then. Since the US is no longer unique as a nuclear power and we have a “Nuclear Nine”, the weapon has been rendered pointless as the idiotic concept of “mutual destruction” is not a vote-winner.