Word: laird
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Charges of inefficiency and worse are becoming a serious political problem for the Pentagon, and last week Defense Secretary Melvin Laird attempted to demonstrate that there is some movement toward reform. He named an in dependent committee to review the big department's management, research, procurement and decision-making operations. He also anticipated complaints of conflicts of interest. The year-long study will be headed by Gilbert W. Fitzhugh, 59, chief executive of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., who is, significantly, a man free of any military-industrial connections...
...March, speaking of Soviet intentions, Secretary Laird said flatly: "They are going for a first-strike capability [the ability to so devastate the American arsenal that the U.S. could not retaliate]. There is no question about that." That statement flew in the face of testimony by Pentagon intelligence experts only a few months before, contending that the Russians were doing no such thing. Laird's assertion drew charges that ABM advocates have altered intelligence estimates and used classified information that helps their case, while downplaying data that damages it. Laird has since modified his March statement; he now says...
...system proposed by the President and Defense Secretary Melvin Laird is designed primarily to protect U.S. offensive missiles against surprise attack, and also to provide a measure of defense for U.S. cities if an enemy should launch a few missiles at them by accident or by design. Strategically, the argument for the project is that if an ABM defense guaranteed the survival of enough missiles to inflict prohibitive damage on an attacker's homeland, the aggressor would be deterred from risking the first strike...
...retaliatory strike even if the Soviets did wipe out most of the U.S. ICBMs? No one knows for sure. Some of the remaining ICBMs might misfire. The B-52s and B-58s are vulnerable to Soviet fighters and antiaircraft missiles; many of them probably would not reach their targets. Laird hints at Soviet antisubmarine warfare developments that may seriously threaten the Polaris submarine fleet in a few years. Further, he says that Moscow is developing an advanced ABM that could be more effective than its present Galosh system...
...Laird's opponents are not convinced. Among the most outspoken is an M.I.T. triumvirate-Jerome Wiesner, who was scientific adviser to President Kennedy; George Rathjens, recently of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; and Steven Weinberg, a physicist. In a critique released last week, the trio argued "In order to launch a first strike of the sort envisioned by Secretary Laird, the Soviets would need SS-9s with extraordinary accuracy and high reliability; they would need to solve the problem of coordinating an attack on our bombers and Minutemen; they would need to deal with our nuclear-armed...