Word: mx
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PRESIDENT REAGAN is about to make a costly mistake. He and his advisers have spent an inordinate amount of time--time that would have been better spent talking about arms limitation--discussing weapons, particularly the MX missile. By all the most recent accounts, the administration is leaning toward a scaled-down version of the mobile missile system first proposed by former president Jimmy Carter and derided by Reagan the candidate. Just as the Carter scheme was ill-conceived from the start, the smaller Reagan plan is equally misguided...
Carter originally proposed shuttling 200 giant MX missiles among 4600 shelters burrowed into the deserts of Utah and Nevada. The rationale for this nuclear shell game went something like this: The Russians now have enough warheads to destroy our 1000 land-based Minuteman missiles in a nuclear first strike. With the MX system, the Russians would have to hit 4600 targets to ensure the destruction of all the mobile missiles. Thus, our land-based nuclear deterrant would remain intact, and everyone could rest easier...
...those who opposed this basing scheme were Sen. Paul N. Laxalt (R-Nev.), Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah), and the Mormon Church. With some of its best friends fast turning into foes, the administration last spring started looking at other options. It has apparently returned to the land-based MX, with the following alterations: The number of missiles and silos has been halved, and the system reportedly includes anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs). This plan, like the original, is indefensible on several counts...
Fundamentally, the MX is a preposterous idea, a "mass transit system for missiles" that would use resources on an unprecedented scale and destroy vast areas of the desert. But more disturbingly, the need for a mobile missile is based on an unsound premise. That the Soviet Union can destroy all our Minuteman silos in a first strike is a highly suspect assumption, based on as-yet unproven theories of missile trajectory and accuracy. (Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union has ever test-fired a missile on a North-South route, similar to that which both countries' bombs would...
Spouting heresy in a mild and disarming manner, the wiry general doubts that we need the new MX missile system. He would exploit cruise missiles and hurry research to put future nuclear weapons on submarines. He would put no more American muscle into NATO, believing that if the Soviets decide to attack nations on the fringes of the Iron Curtain there is no way we can win. Our strategy must be to prevent such a move by raising the costs to their interests around the globe. Taylor argues that we need to take a closer look at the Kremlin...