Word: abm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been riven by the issue. Members have been choosing sides without regard to party affiliation. Last week the Foreign Relations Committee, which normally has no jurisdiction over weapons procurement, issued a formal call for delay in Sentinel's deployment. One of the committee's main arguments is that the ABM program contravenes the intent of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty just at a time when Moscow at last seems genuinely interested in exploring ways to curb the arms race. The ABM dispute may also provide the first major confrontation between Richard Nixon and his possible 1972 opponent, Senate Majority Whip Edward...
Dramatic and significant as the controversy is, most of the issues involved are neither new nor applicable only to the ABM among major military pro grams. The weapon itself has been under discussion for many years without ex citing the degree of fervor it has prompted recently...
...precipitating factor has been that in recent months the Army actually started selecting missile and radar sites and began physical work on the system. Some of the areas considered were choice suburban locations near big cities, and many of ABM's neighbors-to-be hollered their objections so loudly that their representatives in Congress had to take notice. For legislators who were already skeptical of Sentinel, time to do anything about it seemed to be running out. Since the first appropriations for construction and pro curement were approved last year, this year's defense budget might be the last opportunity...
...Johnson Administration that had started Sentinel, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey chose not to campaign against it then (he is now a vocal opponent). For his part, Nixon was warning against a possible "security gap" vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and thus encouraging the ABM's backers. A new Administration and a new Congress offered...
...itself to a large extent on the military command. The Pueblo incident, the Arnheiter affair and technological bobbles like the F-111 have further diminished public trust in the competence of military leadership. Dr. Daniel Fink, a former Pentagon engineer, who has frequently debated on the pro side of ABM, worries about "the belief that these decisions are made by fat, cigar-chewing generals laughing among themselves about billions of dol lars and megadeaths...