Word: smiths
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When the gasoline began to run out and the prices to run up, Herbert O'Dell Smith, 64, agreed to do his bit for the energy crisis. A professional stunt man, he had earned his nickname of "Digger O'Dell" by allowing himself to be buried alive for various ventures. He was campaigning underground for President Carter in Columbia, S.C., in 1976 when he had a heart attack that prompted his retirement...
...verification, Smith said that though the Soviets might get away with some cheating, it would not be very important. "The Soviets have a class of sea-launched cruise missiles. They could covertly extend those missiles' range. But the significance of their being able to do that is very small. You can go down to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and see the U.S. class of cruise missiles that the Soviets have. They're like our Snarks, which are outside in the rain; we've taken them out of our force because they are inefficient...
...Smith conceded that some amendments might be necessary to get SALT II ratified. His count of likely votes in the Senate differs from Perle's: "Roughly speaking there are 40 to 42 votes that you could project would be for the treaty and about 17 against. There are about 41 in between." Some "clarifying" amendments spelling out in detail what the U.S. understands by the treaty without substantively changing the treaty might be necessary to win over enough of the middle group...
...Smith argued, the strategy of some of the Senators that Perle advises "really is to kill the treaty through amendments. Such amendments are designed to go over ground that has been negotiated for years by three Administrations, amendments designed to reverse the final compromise on a given issue. A case in point: insisting that the Backfire be counted as a heavy bomber" and thus as a strategic weapon. On the other hand, Smith said, an amendment could specify "that the U.S. has the prerogative of developing a similar bomber without having to count it against our total of strategic launchers...
...conclusion, Smith conceded that even with SALT ratified, "competition with the Soviet Union will be durable, difficult, varied, intractable. But SALT can maybe make the use of nuclear weapons less likely. I don't believe that conclusion can be demonstrated mathematically or through sophisticated war-game analysis. But somehow we all know, deep down in our gut, that the simple premise of SALT is the recognition by both nations, indeed the entire human race, that we have a desperate stake in avoiding nuclear...