Word: mx
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Democrats were quick to deflate speculation that the President's MX victory would provide momentum in Congress for his other unpopular programs, including large increases in the military budget and new aid to antigovernment contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. Even Republican Senator Paul Laxalt, Reagan's closest friend in Congress, admits that those are "wholly different issues," without the patriotic overtones that Reagan evoked so effectively in the MX campaign. Some legislators were even talking of chopping $1 billion or more from the $3.7 billion the Administration has requested for research on the Strategic Defense Initiative, usually called Star Wars...
...last week's vote necessarily bode well for the next stage of MX funding, which is due to come up for approval in Congress later this year. In that phase, the Administration is seeking $4 billion for 48 new missiles. Several Senators warned the President that their votes for MX last week should not be construed as commitments to future funding. Said Georgia's Senator Sam Nunn, a defense expert: "I can say with very firm conviction I will not vote for any number approaching...
Firm convictions about the MX have a way of changing, however; the Senate alone has taken at least a dozen votes on the MX over the years. By the time the issue arrives before Congress again, the MX may be only a year or so away from initial deployment, and there could well be changes in the Geneva outlook. About the only safe prediction is that the MX debate will continue to claim a large share of the Administration's energy and political reserves...
...Reagan waits. He sets the premise, lets the arguments rage, the crisis rise. Often, extraneous issues do get brushed aside, consensus develops, and Reagan steps in to finish the job--and take credit. The technique has worked on tax cuts, NATO missiles and arms control, and may with the MX. Indeed, Reagan fervently believes that his budget as proposed is a package that should be acceptable to Congress...
...things about the MX missile that detractors rarely criticize is the way it performs. Though still an experimental weapon (its full name is Missile Experimental), in seven operational tests the MX has given every indication that it can ably carry out its assigned function: conveying up to ten nuclear warheads to separate targets over ranges that exceed 8,000 miles. The missile, which is 71 ft. long, 92 in. in diameter and weighs 190,000 lbs. at launch, fires through four stages. In the final phase, a 4-ft.-long "bus," steered by an on-board guidance system and small...