Word: skybolts
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...Kennedy confidence is also plainly apparent in his recent conduct of foreign policy. He led the U.S. into confrontation with Khrushchev over Cuba without consulting the nation's Allies. His decision to cancel the Skybolt missile program, upon which Britain had based its nuclear hopes, was independently made and brusquely carried out. He thinks it is nonsense for U.S. Allies to want independent nuclear forces, although he has not yet convinced-if that is the word-France's Charles de Gaulle of this...
When the U.S. scrubbed its air-to-ground Skybolt missile, many reasons were given, but one of the most prominent was that it had flunked its early flight tests. One weakness in such reasoning has recently been demonstrated by a flurry of failures in tests of the land-based Titan and Minuteman missiles-upon which the U.S. is still depending heavily...
...death of one of the sacred cows of modern weaponry, the Skybolt, has been loudly lamented by its British worshippers, who have accused its executioner, Robert McNamara, of betraying them. Some protests have been quieted by the Nassau Pact, but the Skybolt controversy highlights a deep misunderstanding between the United States and her European allies concerning their mutual defense against Soviet attack, nuclear or otherwise...
...Nassau, the Prime Minister beamed that Britain now had a weapon that "will last a generation. The terms are very good." Many other Britons were not so sure. Though the government will shoulder none of the $800 million development cost of Polaris, it has already poured $28 million into Skybolt and will have to spend perhaps $1billion more for a fleet of missile-packing submarines. At best, the British will not be able to design, build and prove its nuclear fleet before 1970, three years after Britain's bomber force has presumably become obsolete...
Unswerving Conviction. The French, who got no help from the U.S. in developing their force de frappe, were quick to crow that Britain's ties with the U.S. had brought it nothing but humiliation. By contrast, bragged French officials, the Skybolt fiasco only vindicated France's decision to develop its own bombs and delivery systems. Thus, though Charles de Gaulle promised to "reflect" on the Polaris offer, there was little likelihood that he would accept any offer that would subject a French force to Allied control...