Word: mx
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Stockman wanted to get $8 billion out of defense outlays next year on top of the $34 billion from other agencies. Even so, Stockman's plan would permit the Pentagon to proceed with development of 48 more MX missiles, the B-l bomber and the President's Star Wars defense against a nuclear missile attack...
...potshots at the Pentagon sounded like standard Democratic liberalism. Slash the Administration's proposed defense budget. Forget about building the MX missile. Get all those bureaucratic bigwigs out from behind their desks at the Pentagon. Crack down on the piggishness of defense contractors. Broadsides they were, but not from some out-of-step lefty: they were the prescriptions of Arizona's Barry Goldwater, the prospective chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, eminence grise of old-fashioned conservative Republicanism and a major general in the Air Force Reserve...
...problematic MX, he figures, will be canceled when it comes up for a vote in Congress next spring. Therefore Reagan should "not push this thing... I don't think he can win it, so why get your ass knocked off?" Besides, Goldwater admitted, "my heart has never been in" the fight for the new missile, partly because it seems there are plenty of nuclear weapons already. "I'm not one of these freeze-the-nuke nuts, but I think we have enough, I think [the Soviets] have more than enough...
...nearly every instance gave way to compromise and at least outward accommodation. This was true of attitudes toward the Soviet Union, arms control, Central America and the European allies, among others. The need to compromise was symbolized by the resort to bipartisan commissions (the Scowcroft panel on the MX missile, the Kissinger group on Central America) that did extremely useful work and produced sound, generally centrist recommendations, which by no reasonable standard could be described as weak. Despite recent, markedly pacific gestures from the Administration, it remains to be seen whether, in the second term, such centrist policies will prevail...
Fierce struggles are expected over controversial weapons systems. Early in the year, both chambers will vote twice on whether to produce 21 MX missiles. Although Congress has funded a first batch of 21 missiles, foes of the weapon believe that the MX program can be shut down before 1986 deployment if Congress balks this time. Congress may also refuse to build more B-l bombers beyond the 100 already paid for. Reagan's request for $1.7 billion in research funds for his Star Wars plan will encounter determined opposition on Capitol Hill. Congress has allowed testing of an antisatellite...