Word: mcnamara
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...Robert McNamara, appearing later before a congressional committee, declared his belief that "time will show the Nassau Pact to be a major milestone in the long march to a truly interdependent Atlantic alliance." Perhaps. But not yet. The Nassau Pact suffers from improvisation and imprecision. McNamara did not even tell the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that the pact was about to be made. Said one chief: "The first I knew about it was when I read it in my newspaper." Under the plan, missile-bearing Polaris submarines probably will have multinational crews. West Germany, Italy, Belgium and Turkey have...
...force as being less than 2% of the striking power of U.S. missiles and aircraft. But at that, De Gaulle's Mirage IV and Etendard IV planes will carry 50-kiloton bombs-more than twice the power of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima. As part of McNamara's conviction that the manned bomber will soon be obsolete, De Gaulle's force will be out of date before it is active-but McNamara will find argument inside his own Pentagon on that point...
Phantoms & Shivers. McNamara also wants a buildup of NATO's ground forces from the present 24 divisions (which include 400,000 U.S. troops) to a programmed 30 divisions. "We must continue to do everything in our power to persuade our allies to meet their NATO goals," he says, and he means De Gaulle most of all. "Until these capabilities are achieved, the defense of Europe against an all-out Soviet attack, even if such an attack were limited to non-nuclear means, would require the use of tactical nuclear weapons on our part." McNamara also is striving to increase...
...manner in which Europe responds to its own future defense may well decide the success or failure of McNamara's five-year plan. That plan includes Polaris submarines with advanced missiles that nearly double their striking range to 2,500 miles. And to close the range gap between the Polaris and the 350-mile Pershing tactical missiles, McNamara has ordered research on a new medium-range missile that can be fired either from surface ships or mobile ground launchers. Through improved airlift, U.S. troops will be able to move much more rapidly to the world's trouble spots...
...McNamara gets that same glint in his eye when he talks about the "intellectually challenging, but militarily useless, engineering tour de force" of military research and development. "Poor planning, unrealistic schedules, unnecessary design changes, and enormous cost increases over original estimates have continuously disrupted the efficient operation of our program," he told Congress. "We want to do our thinking before we start bending metal. Pencils and paper are a lot cheaper than the termination of programs...