Word: argumentative
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Special Report on the ABM recently issued by the prestigious Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions is nonetheless a valuable document. The argument for the ABM is presented as forcefully and eloquently as possible--and then is carefully demolished...
...SECOND argument in favor of ABM is that we dare not permit the Soviets to "take the lead" in building an ABM system. To do so, insist Bernnan and Johnson, increases the probability that the Soviets will feel they are in a position to destroy the United States with acceptable damage to themselves...
Wiesner disposes of the first argument in short order. The figures Brennan cites are highly suspect on technological grounds, and he admits they are applicable only "assuming that the Soviets do not make a major increase in their offensive forces in response to our improved defense." The ABM would be the most incredibly complex electronic-mechanical system ever built, with all the fallability such complexity implies. The ABM's reliability could never be tested under conditions approximating those of a nuclear attack, simply because there is no way of simulating all the conditions of a nuclear attack. For example...
...Brennan replies, that argument presumes that the U.S. and the Soviet Union will maintain their present definitions of the minimum loss they are willing to inflict upon each other...
SENATOR McGovern uses the history of U.S. ABM research and development to devastate the second argument. It takes a considerable amount of time, about five or six years, to test and deploy any ABM system. Because of the complexity of the system, an ABM system is not something the Soviets could erect and use without ample time for the U.S. to construct a similar defense. We seem to have learned quickly about the system the Soviets were deploying around MosCow. Assuming the CIA is equally efficient in discovering a nationwide deployment of an ABM system by the Soviets, we would...