Word: sovietizing
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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With all this overkill, the critics ask, would the U.S. not have enough of its deterrent left for an overwhelming retaliatory strike even if the Soviets did wipe out most of the U.S. ICBMs? No one knows for sure. Some of the remaining ICBMs might misfire. The B-52s and B-58s are vulnerable to Soviet fighters and antiaircraft missiles; many of them probably would not reach their targets. Laird hints at Soviet antisubmarine warfare developments that may seriously threaten the Polaris submarine fleet in a few years. Further, he says that Moscow is developing an advanced ABM that could...
Albert Wohlstetter of the University of Chicago, an articulate defender of Safeguard, disagrees. All these things are within U.S. capabilities, he argues, and to be safe, the U.S. must assume that anything it can do the Soviet Union can eventually do too. Wohlstetter questions Rathjens' conclusion that, at worst, "a quarter of our Minuteman force could be expected to survive a Soviet pre-emptive S59 attack." Wohlstetter complains that Rathjens overestimates by two-thirds the blast resistance of U.S. silos and unjustifiably assumes that the Soviet multiple warheads would carry only one-megaton payloads. "Where scientists differ," he concedes...
...well the U.S. ABM would work-or if it would work at all-turns on the vulnerability of its radar guidance. Without it, Spartan and Sprint would journey blind. A nuclear blast outside the atmosphere can create radar blackouts lasting critical tens of seconds, as both U.S. and Soviet tests demonstrated in the early 1960s. A "precursor warhead," launched just ahead of a missile attack and detonated as a kind of nuclear smoke screen for the following ICBMs, could black out U.S. perimeter acquisition radar and disrupt the ABM defense...
...almost everyone else, a little puzzled by why Nixon was coming. In essence, the Washington explanation seemed to boil down to: 1) he was asked, and 2) why not? In his talks with Rumania's President and party boss, Nicolae Ceausescu, Nixon will probably sound him out on Soviet and Chinese intentions. He may say some confidential things about Viet Nam for Ceausescu to pass along to Ha noi. The President will surely be cautious, however, not to seem to be too cozy. For Nixon is aware that the Ruma nian leader, despite his enlightened and independent foreign policy...
Russian Response. Although Washington and Bucharest were concerned about Soviet reaction, Washington did not tell Moscow of Nixon's plans in ad vance. The President wanted to make clear that he feels free to deal with other Communist countries without asking the Russians' permission. Once Nixon had announced the visit, though, Secretary of State William Rogers stressed that it should not be interpreted as an anti-Soviet move...