WASHINGTON: LET 'EM EAT MISSILES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080051-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: December 9, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080051-1
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Friday - 9 December 1966
By JAMES RESTON
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8-De-
spite all the shouting about the
Americans and the Russians
agreeing to bar weapons from
outer space, the practical truth
is that another tragic expansion
of the Soviet-U.S, ams race is
now in prospect. The Moscow
Government has already gone
far enough with the installa-
tion of an anti-ballistic missile
(A.B.M.) system to increase the
military and political pressures
on the Johnson Administration
to do the same.
This much has been confirmed
by Secretary of Defense McNa-
mara, but no decision to approve
the fantastic costs of a major
U.S. antiballistic missile and
shelter system will be taken
until Washington makes one
more effort to convince the So-
viet Government that this is an
unnecessary and reckless waste.
Moratorium or Slow-Down
There is even some -talk here
of sending Secretary McNamara
to Moscow to seek a slow-down
if not a moratorium on the
A.B.M. programs of the two
countries. But in any event, the
effort will be made through
diplomatic channels to review
the problem with Soviet offi-
cials before the U.S. military
budget is finally approved this
month.
Washington: Let "Em Eat Missiles
The irony of this situation is
that the question of large new
military budgets for A.B.M.
systems is coming up precisely
when the already swollen de-
fense costs are beginning to
interfere with both Moscow's
and Washington's promises to
improve the standard of living
of their poorest citizens.
Nevertheless, despite the John-
son Administration's efforts to
hold A.B.M. costs to a mini-
mum, the Soviet Government
has already begun deploying
antimissile weapons around
both Moscow and Leningrad.
The feeling here is that the
Moscow Government is deter-
mined to prove during the fif-
tieth anniversary celebrations of
the Soviet revolution next year
that it has the capacity to de-
fend itself against any kind of
attack.
Secretary McNamara, who
will be in Europe most of next
week for the North Atlantic
Treaty meetings, has been
against spending the $40 billion
necessary to install a major
antimissile defense system, an
the ground that more can be
gained for far less money by
developing new offensive mis-
siles that will penetrate the
Soviet antimissile system if
necessary.
The political arguments
against this, however, are obvi-
ous. The Joint Chiefs of Staff
are unanimously for deploying
an antimissile system in this
country. The McNamara argu-
ment would leave the U.S. vul-
nerable to intercontinental mis-
siles, and the President would
be left to face the charge that
the Soviets were willing to pro-
vide an antimissile system for
the Soviet people while Presi-
dent Johnson was not willing to
do the same to protect the
American people.
Never mind that one more
upward spiral of the arms race
would probably leave both sides
with no more real security than
they have now. Never mind that
after both sides have an anti-
missile system the race will
then start all over to produce
new more expensive and more
sophisticated missiles that can
penetrate the antimissile sys-
tems. Never mind that the costs
Will cut -even deeper into the
poverty programs. The Admin-
istration must not be vulnerable
to political attack. It must have
an effective antipolitical missile
system even if it cannot get an
effective anti-ballistic missile
system. And let the poor eat
missiles and live in shelters!
Maybe McNamara or some-
body else can stop this madness
before it gets out of hand. He
is not responsible for it and
would like to stop it if he can,
but the prospects are not good.
The Vietnam war and the Chi-
nese threats have obviously in-
creased the influence of the
Soviet military since the start of
the Kosygin - Brezhnev regime,
and though Soviet officials con-
tinue
to
talk optimistically
about
a
treaty to halt the
spread
of
nuclear weapons to
other
countries, they are obvi-
ously
encouraging a nuclear
race with the United States.
The British Foreign Secretary
George Brown, found them ver)
tough during his recent visit ti
Moscow - unyielding on Viet
nam, determined to believe h
the revival of Nazism in Ger
many, and not even willing t
set up a committee of Anglo
Soviet scientists to study way
of stopping underground nuolea
tests.
This is one of those moment
when the personal interventio
of the President in Mosco'
might have influenced the arrr
race, but again Vietnam inter
feres. It poisons everything.
has disrupted the economy, el
venomed our politics, hurt tl
alliance, divided our people, as
now it is interfering with tli
critical question of the am
race.
Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080051-1