Word: abm
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Administration had had the option to build no ABM system at all, or to construct either the thin shield, aimed at blunting a strike from Peking, or a "thick" shield, designed to cope with an all-out onslaught from Moscow. As usual, Lyndon Johnson staked out the middle ground, and, as usual, he and McNamara came under crossfire from both flanks...
McNamara had long been a precise and persistent opponent of any ABM system, chiefly on the ground that in the lethal game of nuclear deterrence, the best defense is a powerful offense. But when the Russians started deploying an ABM network-however thin-around Moscow and other cities, the Administration came under heavy pressure to follow suit. The reason for the U.S. decision, McNamara told 500 United Press International editors in San Fran cisco's Fairmont Hotel, was the threat that Red China would probably be able to strike the U.S. with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles...
...apologies for the amount of time involved. "Some of the people on the Hill think that all you have to do with a missile site is plug in for water and electricity as you do at a trailer park," said one officer. The fact is, said another, that "the ABM requires a more complicated system than that needed to land a man on the moon...
...response to the Soviet's construction of a similar umbrella around several cities. Since the Russians' efforts became public knowledge last year, there has been inecssant howling from Republicans and some Democrats about a new "missile gap." Richard Nixon-- the victim of the last such "gap"--theratened to make ABM's an issue in the 1968 Presidential campaign...
McNamara, however, argued that the thin ABM shield is "Chinese-oriented." He did not give much attention to the overwhelming probability that this country could sustain a surprise Peking attach--if China were actually rash enough to hit the U.S. with nuclear weapons--and still retaliate with sufficient force to liquidate the Chinese. Peking's harried leaders are surely aware of this. They also know that Cina cannot hope to achieve anything approaching nuclear party with the U.S. for many decades...