Word: mx
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...MX survives again, barely
Assuming they are finally deployed as scheduled in 1986, the first MX missiles are to be stored deep in underground silos, a basing mode that was chosen only after more than 30 other methods were considered. Politically, however, the MX (for missile experimental) program has long had a more precarious base: on the edge of a cliff. Beset by controversy through four Administrations, the weapon was saved from extinction by a bipartisan presidential commission a year ago and funded by a reluctant Congress, only after strong lobbying by Ronald Reagan. Last week a compromise proposal allowed the missile to escape...
...plan, which was put together by Democrat Les Aspin of Wisconsin, aims a carrot and stick at Moscow: money for the missiles will be held in escrow until next April. If the Soviets agree to resume talks on strategic arms limitations, the MX program will remain on hold. If not, the money will be appropriated. The $2.7 billion that the House Armed Services Committee had requested for 30 missiles was cut to $1.8 billion...
Reagan lobbied strongly for full funding of the MX, arguing that cancellation of the program would reward the Soviets for refusing to resume START talks, which have been inactive since last December. Referring to the MX by the nickname he prefers, the President said, "Without Peacekeeper, the incentive for the Soviets to return to the negotiating table is greatly reduced." But by the weekend before the vote, Speaker Tip O'Neill, an MX opponent, boasted that he had a solid majority to scuttle the missile. Republican Leader Robert Michel then made a publicized pilgrimage to the White House...
...deployed, in exchange for an American promise to scale back in the future. In addition to demanding drastic, one-sided cuts in Soviet forces, the proposal left the U.S. free to proceed, albeit at a somewhat reduced level, with a number of new programs that greatly worried Moscow: the MX intercontinental missile, the Trident II submarine missile and a variety of cruise missiles. Thus to reach a bottom line of equality, the Soviets had to subtract, while the U.S. could add. A proposal based on such arithmetic, even as adjusted late last year under pressure from Congress, was simply nonnegotiable...