Word: abm
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...remains McNamara's tragedy, perhaps, despite the power of his arguments that he has frequently failed to appreciate the political consequences of his decisions. For his deployment of a thin ABM system may in time generate pressure to build a far more costly, unnecessary "thick" system to defend against the Russians...
...deployment of the ABM system [Sept. 22] is not only an indication of the present Administration's absurd penchant for wasting tax dollars, but a grave crime against man's will to survive. It will likely open the way to vaster, more absurd mechanizations of defense. If it is never used, the magnitude of such a dead investment will reproach mankind in its folly for generations to come. If it is employed, it will not even protect urban areas; we may die with the satisfaction of knowing that most of "them" will be just as dead. I cannot...
McNamara himself said that an ABM system "Can rather obviously be defeated by an enemy simply sending over more offensive warheads, or dummy warheads, than there are defensive missiles capable of disposing of them...
...there is little hope for even an ABM-crazy Soviet Union to attain strategic equality with the United States. America's three-to-one offensive missile edge over the Soviet Union is not expected by anyone to change much in the next few decades...
...this did not have much weight with an Administration's in political trouble. After gamely resisting demands to start deploying ABM's, it has succumbed-- with the full knowledge that the system will grow with in several years into a costly White elephant...