Word: speeching
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Underlying Reagan's speech last week was his unwavering contention that questions about the proper level of military spending should be divorced from the nation's overall budgetary and fiscal situation. The determining factor, Reagan insisted, should be the level of threat posed by the Soviets. "Our defense establishment must be evaluated to see what is necessary to protect against any or all of the potential threats," he said. "The cost of achieving these ends is totaled up and the result is the budget for national defense...
Some skeptics charged that the speech was part of an increasing Pentagon propensity toward "threat inflation." Explained Congressman Les Aspin of Wisconsin: "We are seeing a more exaggerated and disingenuous presentation of the Soviet threat than we have seen in the past." As an example of how this works, critics point to Defense Department hype two years ago for the new Soviet T-80 tank. It was depicted in briefings and a Pentagon publication as fast, heavily armored and bristling with grenade and missile launchers. That was when the Administration was anxious to secure funding for America...
...inject and hurl out this new idea while the whole world is waiting for the U.S. to come up with a reasonable arms control proposal I find bizarre," said Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. "Can you imagine the reaction here and abroad if Yuri Andropov had made this speech?" Others were appalled at the enormous potential costs of a space race. Said Republican Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon: "It is a call to siphon off the meager and inadequate commitment which now exists to rebuild America." A few Senators, including Republicans Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Malcolm Wallop...
...White House reported an outpouring of supportive calls and telegrams after the speech (80% out of 2,800 in favor). Said Senior Adviser Michael Deaver: "He has had the most favorable response to any speech since he was elected President." But editorial reaction from around the country was more skeptical. The Atlanta Constitution, which labeled Reagan's characterization of the Soviet threat as "huckstering misimpressions," said that by "raising the remote possibility of a sci-fi defense against Soviet missiles, he risked destabilizing the U.S.-Soviet military balance?already dangerously tenuous." The Chicago Sun Times called the speech "an appalling...
Reagan invited a group of 52 scientists and national security experts to the White House Wednesday night to view his speech and be briefed by top officials. Some of those who attended, such as Teller and David Packard, a co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Co., were longtime advocates of ABM research. Said Packard: "Technology has moved ahead to the point where we could design a ballistic missile defense system which could be fully effective. If both sides had a defensive system, it would be stabilizing...