Word: mx
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...came to the Nixon White House a year after McFarlane; both worked from 1973 to 1975 for Kissinger, and Scowcroft retained McFarlane as his deputy when he succeeded Kissinger as Ford's National Security Adviser. More recently Scowcroft has been chairman of Reagan's blue-ribbon MX-missile commission, an important role that the White House might be reluctant to muddle by asking him to serve once more as in-house adviser. Scowcroft's honest brokering between the Administration and Capitol Hill helped produce a more realistic U.S. position at the START negotiations. This, however...
...Center for Defense Information is considering producing a 60-sec. commercial, narrated by Paul Newman, offering "a nuclear war-prevention kit." "I plan to send in for one of those kits," writes Conservative Columnist William F. Buckley Jr., "and if Mr. Newman doesn't send me an MX missile, I'm going to report him to the Postal Service people for fraud...
...Democratic and Republican congressmen can claim support for nuclear reduction of freeze proponents, while simultaneously maintaining an image of backing for strong national defense, through modernization of weapons. The President, by accepting the congressmen's proposal, will also be able to call on favors when the final vote for MX missile is cast...
...actually increases the likelihood. The core of the proposal simply flies in the face of established deterrence theory. The main problem lies in the projected trend for land-based missiles. "Build down" would decrease the current force by almost half, from 1.050 missiles to a total of 100 MX's plus 500 yet-to-be-designed Midgetmen. The number of warheads on these missiles would decrease less from 2.145 to 1500 Reducing the number of missiles (i.e. potential targets) more than the number of warheads compounds an already existent problem--the fewer separate targets each side has, with more warheads...
...nebulous nature of the initiative should also cause Americans grave concern. Five-sixths of the projected land-based mix depends on Midgetman, a small missile proposed by the special Scowcroft Commission essentially to mitigate problems with the MX. However, the Midgetman has yet to be designed, and Congress and President Reagan have yet to move on it. It would seem unwise to summarily dismantle existing deterrent systems before equally effective replacements are assured. Also, verification of Soviet compliance with any "build-down" scheme would be extremely difficult. Finally, "build-down" has become an instant symbol of so-called bipartisan cooperation...