FORGOTTEN HISTORY

Marvin Seid’s excellent review of “Retreat From Doomsday: The Obsolescence of Major War” (Book Review, April 23) brings to mind the comments by a group of scientists from Eastern and Western Europe, in Warsaw a few years ago. At the Pugwash dinner I posed the question: What is the most important reason of no war in Europe for more than 40 years?

A Dutchman said it first, then a Hungarian, Pole, Italian, Frenchman, East German and so on. The key explanation was, “We have forgotten history.” Each scientist pointed to old disputes that could form the basis for conflict “if we did not forget them.”

NED MUNGER

PASADENA