To the Editor:

Anyone speaking to the issue of nuclear-weapons policy must avoid two obviously untenable positions: (1) ceding to the Russians military superiority, since their capacity for ruthlessness and disregard for free political institutions is well documented; and (2) rationalizing the status quo, since there is no moral justification for nuclear war. Michael Novak’s article [“Arms & the Church,” March] suffers from the latter, and egregiously so, for by arbitrary selection he distorts the position of his opponents and in effect sets up a straw man.