Word: mx
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stand united at Geneva or whether America will face the Soviet Union as a nation divided over the most fundamental questions of our national security." For good measure Reagan ordered Max Kampelman, chief U.S. negotiator in Geneva, to return to Washington and lobby House members on behalf of the MX...
...largest strategic missile in the U.S. arsenal, the MX has sparked one controversy after another over four Administrations (see box). The latest rescue effort waged in its behalf stems from a compromise reached last year with a group of House Democrats led by Les Aspin, the new (since January) chairman of the Armed Services Committee. At the time, Congress voted to set aside the $1.5 billion for production of 21 missiles but to hold the money in escrow for a year and then reconsider the project. One reason: Moscow was then boycotting arms talks with Washington, and the Administration argued...
...this year's congressional review approached, arms-negotiation diplomacy between the superpowers changed radically. The Soviets agreed in January to return to the bargaining table, and the new round of talks began March 12. Yet Reagan's most effective argument for extending the MX was basically the same: canceling the program would still send the wrong signal to Moscow and would undercut the U.S. bargaining position in Geneva to boot...
Arms-control advocates, church groups and nuclear-freeze organizations reject the President's reasoning, and they mounted an intense campaign to turn wavering Senators against the MX. Florida Senator Paula Hawkins, for example, received some 1,500 pieces of mail, largely against the missile, in the three days before the vote. For its part, the Administration enlisted its entire legislative affairs staff, Cabinet secretaries and notables like Henry Kissinger to argue its cause. Said one White House staffer: "We just could not afford to lose...
...failed to vote right--a tactic that almost backfired with Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, who confronted Reagan about it during the Capitol Hill lunch. Specter and others also heard from Geneva, where Kampelman and Colleague John Tower, a former Senator, made calls to warn that the U.S. needed the MX as a bargaining tool...