Chris Parton (Letters, October 13) misses my point entirely. It is simply not true to claim that the use of the atomic bomb shortened the Second World War and saved the lives of PoWs and others. On the contrary, determination to use the bomb meant the possibility of accepting Japanese surrender had to be evaded until such time as the bomb was ready to be used. The bomb, therefore, prolonged the war. The real aim of the bomb was to establish dominance over post-war Russia.

Some time ago I had the unique privilege of meeting Professor Joseph Rotblat, who was a pupil of Albert Einstein, and the last living survivor of the Manhattan Project, which produced the A-bomb. Speaking at the Pugwash Conference of December 1992, he demolished the myth that the atomic bombs had been developed to shorten the war and save lives. He quoted General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, who said in March 1944: "From two weeks after taking up the post, there was never any illusion on my part that the main purpose of the project was to subdue the Russians." Not long before the bomb was tested, Truman said: "If it explodes, as I think it will, I'll certainly have a hammer on those boys" (meaning the Russians).

As agreed at Yalta, on August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and invaded Manchuria. Marshal Aleksandr Vasilievsky inflicted a crushing defeat on Japan's 1.2 million Kwangtung army, which had occupied north-eastern China and Korea. South Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands were seized. The Soviet Union now occupied Japanese territory, and was poised to invade mainland Japan. Look carefully at the dates. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, but Japan did not surrender until August 14 - ie, after the Soviet victories. But how many people here have ever heard of Marshal Vasilievsky?

Events surrounding Hiroshima and Nagasaki throw considerable light on the hidden agenda. As early as July 1945, after the end of the war in Europe, the joint chiefs of staff produced war plan JIC 329/1 which singled out for obliteration 20 Soviet cities from Moscow and Leningrad, to Tblisi and Tashkent. Only 51 days after the surrender of Japan, in war plan Totality, the Pentagon's joint intelligence staff discussed an air attack with atomic bombs on 20 Russian cities. Remember: at this period the Soviet Union did not possess a single nuclear weapon.

These early blatantly offensive war plans illustrate vividly how totally false is the self-righteous perception of nuclear "deterrence" as a purely defensive western policy that has dominated western political propaganda for the past half-century. The constant use of the pernicious weasel-word "deterrent" to describe our weapons underlines and reinforces this message. Yes, the nuclear bomb cannot be disinvented. Neither can poison gas and death camps. But we can dismantle them and outlaw them. Instead, we are the rogue state in deploying Trident.

Mr Parton says we should retain "what little we have". There are 200 nuclear bombs stored at Coulport, each eight times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. How in the name of God can he describe this as "little"?

Brian Quail, 2 Hyndland Avenue, Glasgow.