Word: reagan
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...supportive calls and telegrams after the speech (80% out of 2,800 in favor). Said Senior Adviser Michael Deaver: "He has had the most favorable response to any speech since he was elected President." But editorial reaction from around the country was more skeptical. The Atlanta Constitution, which labeled Reagan's characterization of the Soviet threat as "huckstering misimpressions," said that by "raising the remote possibility of a sci-fi defense against Soviet missiles, he risked destabilizing the U.S.-Soviet military balance?already dangerously tenuous." The Chicago Sun Times called the speech "an appalling disservice." Said the Detroit Free Press...
There was some feeling, however, that Reagan's challenge to a system of deterrence that is based on the threat of mutual destruction could be a welcome element in the debate over nuclear policy. "Reagan now suggests that we slowly start investigating whether in the next century technology may offer a solution to our security that does not rest on the prospect of mass and mutual death," noted the Washington Post. "It is the product of Ronald Reagan's peculiar knack for asking an obvious question, one that has moral as well as political dimensions and one that the experts...
Moscow's response was far less generous. For the second time since coming to power, Andropov chose to respond personally to a U.S. initiative through an interview with Pravda. He began by conceding that part of what Reagan said was correct: "True, the Soviet Union did strengthen its defense capability. Faced with feverish U.S. efforts to establish military bases near Soviet territory, to develop ever new types of nuclear and other weapons, the U.S.S.R. was compelled to do so." But then he struck back, saying of his American counterpart: "He tells a deliberate lie asserting that the Soviet Union does...
...Reagan invited a group of 52 scientists and national security experts to the White House Wednesday night to view his speech and be briefed by top officials. Some of those who attended, such as Teller and David Packard, a co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Co., were longtime advocates of ABM research. Said Packard: "Technology has moved ahead to the point where we could design a ballistic missile defense system which could be fully effective. If both sides had a defensive system, it would be stabilizing...
...fact that new weapons could probably evade or destroy satellite defense systems makes the technology Reagan envisions incalculably expensive. "The offense can add dimensions to thwart or neutralize the defense for far less money than the cost of defensive systems," says Ramo. "Hence it's economically unsound." Jeremy Stone, director of the Federation of American Scientists, agrees. "The cost is unlimited," he says, "because what we try to do in defending the country, the Russians will attempt to negate by penetrating the system...