Word: laird
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...would be difficult to find two men more diverse in their approach. Laird, a kinetic, combative Midwesterner, testified before the Senate's Foreign Relations subcommittee on disarmament the week after he returned from his first tour of Viet Nam as Defense Secretary. As an eight-term Congressman from Wisconsin, he was used to committee hearings, and he knew how to make his point in them. During vigorous questioning, he stood his ground firmly. Rogers, a former Attorney General and ever the coolly prepared advocate, showed a reasoned, refreshingly pliant approach to questions that Laird handled with brusque assurance...
...probably differ more in style than in substance. Yet to the extent that there are two divergent bodies of opinion within Nixon's inner circle-at least on Viet Nam and ABM systems-Laird and Rogers probably exemplify them. The President, still playing for time, has so far kept to a cautious middle course. But sooner or later he may have to choose one tack over the other...
...Faiths. The Secretary of State was careful not to contradict Laird flatly, even though his testimony was laced with optimism. Whereas Laird gloomily doubted that U.S. troops could soon leave South Viet Nam (but added qualifiers to his doubts), Rogers wanted them back "as quickly as possible." Moreover, said Rogers, any settlement that required the U.S. to stay on in Viet Nam permanently-like that in Korea-would be "not desirable." The conditions for peace that Rogers outlined were substantially unchanged from those of the Johnson Administration. However, he acknowledged that Saigon's present attitude would be a "problem...
...While Laird had seemed to place his faith in keeping up a tough battlefield pressure, Rogers put more trust in negotiations. "If they're serious about peace, if they want to talk about it, we're ready," he declared, adding that previous breakthroughs had come about almost entirely in secret negotiations. "That was where the progress was made," he said. Rogers seemed to imply that such private sessions had not yet begun-though reports of them have surfaced in several places. Later he added: "If you want to have secret talks, you pretend you're not having...
Happier News. In his assertive defense of the controversial ABM system, Laird made what seemed like a startling revelation. The "Safeguard" system was absolutely necessary, he said, because "there is no question" that the Russians are marshaling a first-strike force of giant intercontinental ballistic missiles that could destroy large numbers if not most of the Minuteman U.S. ICBMs. Laird insisted that without Safeguard the U.S. strategy of retaliatory deterrence would be dangerously undermined. Laird's report about the Russian first-strike capacity is still unconfirmed by the White House and doubted by many experts...