Word: laird
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Cover. Cartoon by Patrick Bruce Oliphant, whose work has often appeared in TIME but never before as a cover. In the tracing above, the first figure from the left (1) is Defense Secretary Melvin Laird clutching his hard-won ABM, while a general (2) expresses the Pentagon's pleasure. The cigarette-puffing baker (3) is Congress, serving up half a loaf of surtax. Above and to the right stands a G.I. (4) in the process of dropping his equipment into the arms of South Viet Nam's President Thieu (5). Below, Rumania's President Ceausescu (6) listens...
Defense Secretary Melvin Laird have consistently refused to offer or accept any compromise, insisting that the nation cannot afford to lose time in constructing missiles at the two initial sites. ABM expenditure for research and development would pass the Senate easily; few of those who object to voting deployment money now would oppose further R. & D. work on the complex system. But the Administration wants funds for missile installation included, partly as a bargaining counter in the strategic arms-limitation talks it hopes to begin with the Soviet Union next month...
...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...
...site system the Administration has proposed, Laird estimates the price at $10.8 billion. Officials point out that annual review of the need for the program could cut the project off long before that much is spent. ABM critics argue, however, that the final cost will turn out to be much higher. They fear that Safeguard may be only the first segment of a greatly expanded "thick" deployment. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, a former Secretary of the Air Force, has put the cost of such a system as high as $400 billion, although even many of Safeguard's detractors...