Word: laird
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird returned last week from a four-day tour of Viet Nam, and it became known that he was considering pulling out as many as 50,000 troops before the end of the year. Nixon obviously would like to do so, but, for the immediate future, at least, he quashed that notion. "In view of the current offensive on the part of the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong," he said at his press conference, "there is no prospect for a reduction of American forces in the foreseeable future." He was still more abrupt when...
...entry for enemy materiel. The most likely choice, however, is an intensification of the ground war in South Viet Nam, perhaps marked by a large-scale American offensive. None of these courses is without risk, either military or political, and much will depend on the recommendations that Mel Laird brings back to Washington this week...
...general expectation was that the President would choose to continue the ABM program in some form, despite the bitter criticism that that course would draw. To do otherwise would amount to a vote of no confidence in the military and undercut Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, who has come out in favor of the ABM. In the highly unlikely event that Nixon chose to abandon this system, he would come under heavy fire from those Americans who voted for him at least in part because he promised to guarantee clear U.S. military superiority over the Soviet Union. To steer a cautious...
...Kremlin has reportedly planned a $25 billion program that would buy more than 5,000 Galoshes. U.S. intelligence has assumed that Galosh is an inferior missile supported by relatively old-fashioned mechanical radars and hence of no major concern to the West at present. Recently, though, Defense Secretary Laird has indicated that the Russians are working on new components. German military sources talk of a Russian ABM in the 50-to 60-megaton range...
...offensive missile force, the thin Sentinel began to appear not as an end in itself, but only as the first step toward a "thick" defense against Soviet attack. Its ultimate cost was estimated to be $50 billion-and many in Washington feel that it would far exceed that. Now Laird is arguing that, if nothing else, the Sentinel would serve as a bargaining point with the Russians should negotiations take place. Russia, after all, has actually begun to install its "Galosh" ABM network around Moscow. Last year the Soviets slowed construction of their defense network, perhaps because of technical problems...