Word: mx
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Though Reagan blithely disavowed his aides' warnings about political retaliation, the final vote bore the marks of tough party discipline. Only eight of the Senate's 53 Republicans voted against the MX measure. The G.O.P. defections were more than offset by ten Democratic votes for the MX, including that of Minority Leader Robert Byrd, a longtime MX supporter. Said Democrat Christopher Dodd: "The negotiations in Geneva are what put this over the top. I'll bet Reagan got ten votes on that basis alone...
Moscow's reaction to the Senate vote was reasonably muted. Soviet media continued to describe the MX as a "first-strike missile." Not surprisingly, the official Soviet news agency TASS accused the Senate of "bowing to unprecedented pressure from the Reagan Administration and the U.S. military- industrial complex." The MX vote had no immediately discernible effect on the talks in Geneva. U.S. and Soviet spokesmen announced that they had reached agreement, as planned, on dividing into three negotiation groups, one each to consider strategic weapons, Euromissiles and space arms...
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...