MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM URGED IN U.S. TO PROTECT INDIA AND JAPAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300090083-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: February 13, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Chicago Nuclear Expert Says
Need by China's Neighbors
for Arsenal Would Ease
The debate so far has boon
cast primarily in terms of the
American balance of power
with the Soviet Union, which
has already begun to deploy an
antiballistic missile system.
Suggests Counterbalance
By HEDRICK SMITH
Special to The New York Times
CHICAGO, Feb. 100---The
United States would be better
able to provide India and Japan
with a "nuclear umbrella"
against Communist China if it
were to deploy a limited anti-
missile defense system in this
country, an academic expert
said today.
This, in turn, should help ease
the growing pressures in those
two, Asian countries for devel-
opment of their own nuclear
weapons, said Dr. Albert Wohl-
stetter of the University of
Chicago.
The debate over whether to
set up an antimissile missile
defense is one of Washington's
hottest military arguments at
present. The Chiefs of Staff
have recommended a wide-
spread ballistic missile defense
system for the United States.
But Secretary of Defense Rob-
ert S. McNamara has opposed
it, pending discussions with the
Soviet Union on the possibility
of a freeze on missile defense
systems.
But Professor Wohlstetter, a
specialist on nuclear matters
who has served on the Rand
Corporation Research Council,
suggested in an interview that
the United States should also
be concerned about counteract-
ing the impact of China's grow-
ing nuclear arsenal on its neu-
tral and pro-Western neighbors.
He said that India and Japan,
among others, believed them-
selves increasingly menaced by
Peking's missile program.
"In time, they're either going
to get nuclear protection from
someone else, formal or inform-
al, or else they'll have to protect
themselves," Dr. Wohlstetter
said.
With a limited antiballistic
system capable of offsetting
Chinese offensive missile capa-
bility in the nineteen-seventies,
the United States could give
these countries assurances of
defense against China's missiles
without great military risk, he
explained.
Without such a system, which
because of itn::.limited nature
,night be set up for less than
Approved JQe(Q.I0hei~ e
cause they might result in'pert said.
Alfred Eisen$}aedt
Dr. Albert Wohlstetter
American casualties if China's
intercontinental missiles were
turned against the United
States, Dr. Wohlstetter said.
Accoiing to Pentagon esti-
mates, China could have opera-
tional intercontinent ballistic
missiles, capable of striking the
United States, by the early
nineteen-seventies.
Peking's multi-billion-dollar
nuclear weapons program, es-
pecially the launching of a nu-
clear-tipped missile last Oct. 28,
has spurred the debate in India,
and to much lesser extent in:
Japan, over whether to develop
nuclear weapons, Dr. Wohlstct
ter reported.
In her peaceful atomic energy,
program, he continued. India!
has put together a team of
scientists with facilities, includ-I
ing a plutonium separation
plant, that could enable her to
produce an atomic bomb within
18 months.
Sizeable factions within the
ruling Congress party, as well
as some military officers ands
physicists, are reported to be
advocates of an Indian atomic
weapons program despite the
staggering cost.
In Japan, Dr. Wohlstetter
said, theres has been no com-
parable development of atomic
resources for peaceful uses
nor an equivalent public de-
bate about homemade atomic
weapons.
But in the last year, Japan
has shown considerable techni-
cal cal capability in developing
solid fuel rockets with a big
thrust, and-the private debate
over developing atomic weapons
~AS300090083-5