"The Sputniks of 1958 had shaken the States out of its complacency as nothing else could. By 1961, therefore, that country had reversed its trend in favor of labor and the common man and at last had recognized that it was the uncommon man who had enabled it to achieve its tremendously high material standards. They were catching up very rapidly with the Russians, who for a time had had a preponderance of scientific personnel, and had managed, by sacrificing consumer goods to heavy industry, to keep ahead of the States in the machinery of war. With a stalemate, at least temporarily, in science, the Americans turned back to economic warfare. For a time the Reds, with their lavish promises, had been ahead in this field too, but the deliveries of goods didn't match the promises and gradually disillusionment had set in. So the Americans, who could be depended upon to deliver the goods, gradually forged ahead. As it now stands, they are slowly but certainly pushing the Communists out of all but the captured satellite countries and even there, the years of repression and low standards of living have resulted in several serious revolts in the past ten years. Then too, in educating their people in the attempt to achieve scientific supremacy, the Communists have awakened them to the fallacies of the Marxist-Leninist doctrines." "Now dictators seldom give up quietly. The Commies are strained to the limit and in danger of losing. They have to do something--but they aren't fools. You can't have atomic war without suicide. Local wars and political maneuvering have failed. They are losing the economic war. There is only one answer!" * * * * * Deliberately he paused to let the argument sink in ... a favorite habit of his. "A new kind of war! That's the answer! A war that is over before anyone realizes it has started--and a war that cannot be blamed on them, so there is no danger of retaliation." He drew hard on his cigarette, butted it firmly, and went on. "I believe that this present epidemic has been started by enemy agents. I further believe that it is due to a synthetic virus which combines the terrific contagiousness of the 1918 flu with certain features of mumps, and perhaps German measles. I think the virus has been built up in such a way that there is no cross-immunity with any natural virus; in other words, having had mumps or flu or shots for either will be no protection. And, to make it even more diabolical, they have deliberately made it a mild type of infection so that almost everyone gets better, and people are therefore not concerned about it. As Joe Armstrong said, the stuff isn't serious. So why suspect sabotage until it is too late." "But the Russians themselves are reporting cases," I said, "and how do you explain this pandemic in Red China that's killing off so many people. That is an entirely different disease."