Word: sdi
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Ambassador Paul Nitze has set forth three criteria that must be met if "SDI 2" is to be technically feasible. 1) It must work as a system. This means more than fancy weapons. It means an enormously complicated system has to work without ever being tested under the stress of nuclear war. 2) It must be cost-effective. If it is much cheaper for the Soviets to add offensive missiles than for us to add defenses, we will merely provoke an increase in the offense without being more secure. 3) It must be relatively invulnerable. If it is easy...
Similarly, we should not let the current debate about a single technological utopia such as SDI so dominate our thinking that we fail to evaluate its various dimensions in relation to alternative visions of the long-term future. A responsible moral approach to the nuclear future requires us to avoid large risks to the crucial values of survival and freedom that we must pass on to future generations, and to make continual efforts to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons whenever that does not increase risks. Such an approach requires hard thinking about uncertain probabilities and proportionate risks rather than succumbing...
...Soviets insisted that progress on all other nuclear arms depended on restricting the space-based defense system; the U.S. refused to trade away any part of the Star Wars program in exchange for new arms deals. Again, said Shultz, "it seemed that their objective was to try to cripple SDI, and it is not going to work." Though both sides emphasized that talks would go on, the failure at Vienna reduces the prospect of an arms agreement in the near future...
...Shultz and Shevardnadze lasted three hours. From the beginning, the Soviets made it clear that they were not interested in the U.S. goal of defining some areas of agreement, perhaps including the reduction of intermediate-range nuclear weapons, or disagreement. Instead, Soviet negotiators hammered away at just one subject: SDI. Senior officials on both sides sat down later that evening to try to draft a joint communique. But there was no all-night session this time. Three hours into the staff meeting, it became clear that neither side was going to retreat from its position on SDI, and the session...
...time no one expected a positive result. The U.S. team became convinced that the Soviets had come to Vienna to stonewall. "It was clear their , instructions were not to make substantive progress," snapped a senior American official. Said another: "They just wanted to increase the public relations pressure on SDI...