Word: plan
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Reagan refused to retreat an inch in defending what is now proposed to be a $2 trillion, five-year military spending plan. Speaking just 33 minutes after the House voted to cut by more than half his proposed 10% increase in next year's Pentagon budget, the President sharply assailed the arguments of his critics as "nothing more than noise based on ignorance." Said he: "They're the same kind of talk that led the democracies to neglect their defenses in the 1930s and invited the tragedy of World War II." In order to emphasize the offensive threat posed...
...Bonn, the disarmament spokesman in the opposition Social Democratic Party, Egon Bahr, said Reagan "has broken a taboo, and the new perspective could be fruitful." But Manfred Worner, Defense Minister in the conservative government, called the plan "a program for the next century, not one to tackle the defense problems of tomorrow...
...Reagan actually proposed such a plan before. It was outlined in a White House position paper on defense in October 1981: "We will expand ballistic missile defense research and development for active defense of land-based missiles. We will develop technologies for space-based missile defense...
Reagan's video-game vision of satellites and other weapons that might some day zap enemy missiles with lasers or particle beams and the drama surrounding his unexpected announcement were partly a political ploy to change the context of the debate over defense spending. But if his space-age plan proceeds, or even if the suggestion of a shift in strategy is taken seriously, the implications are staggering. Indeed, as Reagan said, "we are launching an effort which holds the promise of changing the course of human history." Not since 1972, when the antiballistic missile (ABM) treaty was signed...
Reagan felt the need to include a positive element in his speech last week to show that his Administration had a broader vision than simply confronting security problems with greenbacks. So he decided to announce his space-age plan with some public fanfare, rather than simply order that it be studied quietly.* Clark warned Reagan on the day of the speech that he could expect criticism, even from within his Administration, for precipitately suggesting such a radical change in strategy. "It won't be the first time," the President replied. "It doesn't bother...