HEAD ' EM OFF AT 'THE GAP'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300100026-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: July 17, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 20)06/011/30 7 -RDP70B00338R000300100026-6
JUL
I-.EAI) 'EM -OFF AT "THE GAP"
That's the "me atonna e gap" reported last week by j
some of our most famous retired admirals and generals in
a report on how U. S. nuclear power compares with the
Soviet Union's. In the opinion of
the brass-heavy American Se
curity Council, we are on the short'
end of that gap.
The report to the I-I o u s e
Armed Services Committee was
signed by former Air Force Gen.
Bernard Schriever, who developed,
our intercontinental ballistic mis-
siles.
It maintains that while we
still lead in numbers of missiles
and bombers, Soviet Russia has
passed us in total wallop packed
by their weapons. The gap could
become "massive" by 1971. -
Besides, ASC goes on, we have let the Communists
steal the march on us in two other vital defense areas-
development of anti-ballistic missile systems and nuclear
weapons for space.
Despite hot denials from the Pentagon, the report certain to prompt some sharp questioning from Congress.
If on target, it is a boot in the pants for the-
POLICY OF "MUTUAL. DETERRENCE"
-proclaimed and practiced by Secretary of Defense Robert
Strange McNamara and the Johnson Administration.
This policy rests on the assumption that since the U. S.;:
and the Soviets could incinerate one another in a nuclear
It holds true as long as both sides are willing to accept
a nuclear stalemate. Gen. Schriever, et al., make it.clear `i
that the Kremlin has no such intention.
Russia built an ABM system while McNamara was
pooh-poohing the idea and resisting all efforts by Congress
and the defense chiefs to poke and prod him into action.
When we finally woke up, all President
TalksGo Johnson did was send an envoy tip-toeing off
Nowhere to Moscow to try to sweet-talk the Reds intoi`
a treaty to limit or eliminate ABM outfits:
That got nowhere, and neither did LBJ at the Glassbon'
talkfest last month.
That shouldn't have surprised. anyone. Two years agb'Communists have overrun in the past 50 years
.
we joined Russia in a pious United Nations agreement not ; It is supposed to be accompanied by a ringing procla- ,
?
to make space a war arena. nation from our Chief Executive. But as our Washington
A few months later the Russkis boasted about their '. columnist, Ted Lewis, pointed out recently, this has been
Scrag, an orbital vehicle that could lug a 30-megaton war- toned down to almost a behind-the-hand whisper by suc-
head through space. Our State Department clucked that cessive Presidents.
To which the Kremlin responded that we ought to look
at the fine print in the contract. The treaty barred putting
weapons in space-it didn't say anything about developing
or producing weapons that could be used there.
CAPTIVE NATIONS WEEK,
-the observance of which began yesterday. It was decreed.,
by Congress in .1959, lest we forget the slave empire the
Instead we talk of thaws, detentes, rapprochement,:
and building bridges to these tyrants who
Wishfui have sworn to bury us. With wishful think-
Thinking ing and weasel words we try to transform=
the Communist Ogre into a Jolly Red Gi
nt
:
a
.
So much for empty treaties with the Communists, Whenever we are tempted to take such pipe dreams
who break or twist them at their own convenience. ; seriously we should think of the millions of victims of our
We'd do better to put more effort into an effective let's-get-along-with-the-Russians agreements at "Yalta,
ABM system and some of the super-sophisticated, futuristic Tehran and Potsdam.
space and earth weapons now reported on drawing boards, We talk of "peaceful coexistence." Mlhat of their right:
A bird in the sky is worth two in the Hollybush. to peaceful existence? And v .he foundations for our
Ti; rice of losing this weapons race is brought sharp- "bridges'=,be the crushed spirits and broken hopes of those
Ir to mind by--- Approved 'For Release 2006/01/30: "6} - bb,%64 g( ?lie"-?