Word: sdi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...problem of banning underground tests ((a so-called comprehensive test ban, or CTB)). I attach special significance to the second of the talks, in which I came out against the "package" approach, whereby the U.S.S.R. is strictly linking agreements on nuclear weapons reductions to conclusion of an SDI agreement. Another important statement was on the safety of nuclear power, in my third speech. I would like there to be a broad public discussion of these issues...
...participation in the forum was reported in the Soviet press but not the main points of my remarks. This is what Pravda wrote: "Academician A.D. Sakharov noted the unsoundness of the position of SDI proponents. He also termed as incorrect the idea that the existence of the SDI program would spur the U.S.S.R. to disarmament talks. The SDI program impedes negotiations. The scientist also proposed his own version of how to achieve a 50% cut in nuclear weapons." Western radio stations have also reported my views imprecisely and incompletely. This reinforced my decision to publish the complete text...
UNTYING THE PACKAGE. The possibility of an agreement on several critical disarmament problems emerged in Reykjavik. But the negotiations were frustrated by the SDI problem, more precisely by Reagan's reluctance or inability to conclude a compromise SDI agreement providing for both a moratorium on deployment in space of ABM components (which is a necessary condition) and specific limitations on the testing of SDI, which involves launches of components into space or underground nuclear explosions. In the version most acceptable to the U.S.S.R., the agreement would provide that SDI work be limited solely to laboratory research. Apparently the compromise agreement...
Given the predictable position that Reagan took ((he rejected the Soviet attempt to limit SDI to the laboratory)), the package principle adopted by the Soviet side assumed decisive importance. It makes an agreement on SDI a necessary condition for other disarmament agreements, especially any agreement to cut the number of ICBMs. A deadlock developed...
...believe that the package approach can and should be revised. A significant cut in ICBMs and medium-range and battlefield missiles, and other agreements on disarmament, should be negotiated as soon as possible, independently of SDI, in accordance with the lines of the understanding laid out in Reykjavik ((presumably with the additional feature of priority cuts in silo-based MIRVed ICBMs)). I believe that a compromise on SDI can be reached later. In this way the dangerous deadlock in the negotiations could be overcome. I shall try to analyze the ideas that led to the package approach and demonstrate their...