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E. Grey Dimond, MD

JAMA. 1985;254(5):658-659.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

IN THIS essay, I will not repeat well-known facts about nuclear war but directly go to a preventive strategy, almost primitive in its logic: the exchange of hostages. To gain a listener's attention and communicate the logic of safety from a nuclear threat through a concept not based on extremely complex and expensive technology is difficult. Not only difficult, but the proposer is vulnerable to criticisms ranging from "childish" to "dotty."¹

I will not lengthen this discussion by reciting the experience of history other than to note that an exchange of citizens and students was commonly practiced by the Hellenic city-states, that Caesar in his Commentaries describes exchanges as a means of gaining understanding between tribes, that marriage has long been a device of diplomacy, that a nation's borders have been secured by using a ruler's daughters as connubial hostages, and that such exchanges have been a fundamental device . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, 2411 Holmes St, Kansas City, MO 64108-2792 (Dr Dimond).

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