Word: icbms
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Dates: during 1956-1956
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...Navy the development of all guided missiles that range farther than 200 miles (TIME, Dec. 10). In theory, this gave the Air Force control of the Army's "unproved" intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM)-the Jupiter-as well as final control over its own intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Just how furious the Army was, only relatively few could know-until last week...
...ATLAS ICBM will be test-fired within 18 months. Convair plans to launch its intercontinental missile (range: 5,000 miles) from Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. into Caribbean and Atlantic firing range...
...warfare might become the only thinkable type of conflict. Another possibility: since no nation could be expected to submit to ultimate defeat through the attrition of a series of limited wars, the tendency would be for such wars to expand until the imperiled nation, in desperation, finally pushes its ICBM button. With that risk involved, even the smallest war in its ultimate consequences could become too hazardous for the undertaking. The form of war might therefore shift entirely to economic, social, political and ideological conflict...
Because of its military potential, ICBM will rewrite all the rules of foreign relations. With ICBM firepower, huge armies will become obsolete. The nature of alliances will be changed; even now, the idea of expanding NATO from a purely military shield into a working community of political and economic interests is being discussed. Barring some new kind of economic or political magnetism, neutralism will become an even greater factor because of the risk of military involvement with either of the ICBM-armed powers. Certainly, statesmen will be able to approach the labyrinthine problems of disarmament from a new basis, once...
...history of the club and the longbow and the musket teaches that the ICBM will probably not be the "ultimate" weapon in the sense that no defense can ever be developed against it. But there will doubtless be a period of years, perhaps decades, when the ICBM stands as the supreme, unstoppable weapon. Should the missile standoff burst upon a world unprepared to think about the new meanings, the ICBM could cause explosive political tensions that might even trigger the missile itself. What is important, then, is for the U.S. to approach the age of the ICBM with some hard...