Word: mirvs
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...puzzle, then Shortz accepting it and finally Clinton, Stewart, Burns, Okrent and Indigo Girls solving it. The first clue is "Warhead weapon," four letters. Stewart and Burns jump on ICBM, while Clinton, who's been in charge of these things, says, "it's gotta be an ICBM or a MIRV." As the theme becomes clear, he observes, "Not too hard but it's very clever...
When I left office in February 1968, the Soviets were still moving ahead with the ABM system, and our MIRV program was acquiring a strong constituency in this country. What followed is a matter of record. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. did agree on the ABM treaty in 1972, but it was decided, nonetheless, to proceed with deployment of MIRVs. The number of U.S. missile warheads increased from 1,800 in 1970 to 6,100 in 1975; during this period, the Soviets, who were behind us in the development of MIRV technology, expanded their warheads by only 900, from...
Following our return to Washington, there was unanimous agreement among the Chiefs, the President and me that we must initiate action to expand our offensive forces. The cheapest way to do that was to develop MIRVs. By placing more than one warhead on each missile, the U.S. could increase the number of warheads far more cheaply than by building more missiles. But we recognized this was a very dangerous step--if the Soviets followed our lead, as we must assume they would, it would lead to a dramatic increase in the offensive forces of each side. We therefore concluded that...
...pointed to by those who say, "We build, they build; we stop, they build"--occurred between 1975 and 1980. During that period the Soviets more than doubled the number of their missile warheads, from 2,500 to 5,500. It was in part a delayed response to our MIRV decision of five years before. And it still left us in 1980 with a substantial numerical superiority...
...surprisingly, Gorbachev had problems with the proposal. In a letter hand delivered to Bush during Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze's visit to Washington, Gorbachev replied that any MIRV ban should not be limited to land-based weapons, where the Soviets have a heavy numerical advantage, but should also include those aboard submarines, where the U.S. has the edge...