Word: reagan
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...Among the events that have raised the stakes for SDI is a barrage of assaults on the arms-control environment from which it emerged. Reagan has announced plans to jettison the limits on offensive weapons in the unratified 1979 SALT II agreement unless the Soviets are more forthcoming on new arms-control initiatives, and last week he awkwardly tried to explain what this posture really means. His Administration is split on how to apply the 1972 ABM treaty, which limits development of antimissile systems, but Pentagon hawks have gone a long way toward undermining any restraints the treaty might place...
...June 3, the discussions revealed that fundamental disagreements still exist about the nature of the program. Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle and Chief SDI Scientist Gerold Yonas agreed that SDI should not initially be regarded as a way to protect the nation's population from nuclear attack, as Reagan has envisioned. The purpose, said Perle, is "the defense of America's capacity to retaliate." Paul Nitze, the Administration's senior arms-control adviser, disagreed. "Maybe it's (Perle's) view," he said, "but I can't see the rationale...
...latest Soviet offer in Geneva may force Reagan to resolve these disputes over the nature of SDI and its role in arms control. At a special session of the two delegations, Chief Soviet Negotiator Viktor Karpov presented proposals that made an explicit connection between reducing offensive weapons and limiting strategic defense programs. The plan amplifies an informal one the Soviets made last month that sought to set limits on America's SDI program through maintaining continued adherence to the ABM treaty. In making their offer, the Soviets have done precisely what U.S. officials have been wanting them...
...press conference last week, the President was guarded about the Soviet moves. But he seemed to go out of his way to sound conciliatory. In answer to a question about a recent speech, Reagan said that he must have "goofed someplace" if it appeared that he had linked Mikhail Gorbachev with Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat and Muammar Gaddafi. The President twice described Gorbachev as "the first Soviet leader to my knowledge that has ever voluntarily spoken of reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons." (Not quite: Moscow's long-standing position has been that it would someday like to see the elimination...
...attempts to sound accommodating, Reagan further muddled the issue of whether he had in fact decided to abandon the SALT II treaty. The Administration is in the process of dismantling one missile-carrying submarine, thus keeping the U.S. within the pact's ceilings. But it asserted that it would breach the limits late this year, as more B-52 bombers were equipped with cruise missiles. It is possible, however, said Spokesman Larry Speakes, that another submarine might be decommissioned when the cruise missiles put the U.S. over the SALT II limit. Exactly what are you going to do on SALT...