Word: mx
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...idea of trading off the MX for the SS-18 was that the Administration as a whole, and Reagan in particular, decided that the U.S. must have the MX no matter what the outcome of START. Like cruise missiles and bombers, the MX was thus to be unavailable as a bargaining chip. The U.S. might settle for a smaller number of MXs with a START agreement than it would otherwise have deployed, but the missile system was seen as an indispensable part of the U.S.'s "strategic modernization" program...
...time of the first NSC meeting devoted to START, in April 1982, the State Department's idea of a straightforward trade-off between the MX and the SS-18 was dead, and the advocates of a low throw-weight ceiling seemed to have the upper hand. On the eve of the meeting, Perle circulated a paper that criticized State for advocating an approach that offered "the appearance but not the reality of significant limits on Soviet strategic power ... and [that] would drive the Administration to a repetition of past mistakes...
Second, a low launcher ceiling would enhance the rationale for their cherished MX. Since a single MX will carry ten warheads, it is an efficient way of fitting many warheads under a low launcher ceiling...
Liberal and conservative experts alike criticized the high ratio of warheads to launchers that the proposal would produce. Each side would end up with an ICBM force made up largely of stationary multiple-warhead missiles such as the MX and SS-18. While in their silos, they would be sitting ducks, vulnerable to a pre-emptive strike; once in the air, they might be first-strike weapons. Therefore the incentive of each side to shoot first in a crisis would be increased, and the stability of the nuclear balance would be upset...
...tempt nor threaten a pre-emptive attack. Thus, while START was in tended to enhance the case for the MX by increasing the ratio of warheads to launchers and by putting a premium on large MlRVed missiles, it inadvertently increased opposition to the big missile in Congress and instead spurred development of the "Midgetman": an entirely new ICBM, a small, single-warhead alternative to the large MlRVed MX...