A WHITE HOUSE REPORT ARGUES FOR 'STAR WARS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100500005-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: January 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100500005-4
.\L' I\Jl'1\ 111J 'J
4 January 1985
A White House Report
Argues for `Star Wars'
By WAYNE BIDDLE
Special to The New York TTmee
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The White
House issued its first public report to-
day on President Reagan's proposal to
develop a defense against nuclear mis-
siles, arguing that the time had come to
move away from reliance on weapons
of mass destruction to deter a nuclear
war.
While not departing from testimony.
given before Congress this year by an
array of Pentagon officials, the report
seemed clearly aimed at the general
public rather than at expert audiences.
In the foreword to the glossy,10-page
brochure, President Reagan wrote that
"we must seek another means of deter-
ring war. It is both militarily and mor-
ally The report, using language that
avoided technical intricacies, reviewed
the background of what the Adminis-
tration calls President Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative, which has
become popularly known as "Star
Wars" since he announced it in - a
March 1983 speech.
In his - introduction, Mr. Reagan re-
iterated major themes of that speech,
saying the basic assumptions behind
trying to avoid nuclear war through
mutual vulnerability "are being called
into question." New technologies and a
Soviet military buildup have made the
quest for defense against nuclear-
armed missiles more urgent and suc-
cess more possible, he said.
"I would ask you to remember that
the quality of our future is at stake and
to reflect on what, we are trying to
achieve - the strengthening of our
ability to preserve the peace while
shifting away from our current depend-
ence upon the threat of nuclear retalia-
tion," the President wrote.
A White House spokesman said today
that the before
publication by a number of executive
bureaus, including the Defense Depart-
ment the State Department and the
Central ence Agency,
The report seemed to minimize the
intense debate in Congress and among
scientists outside the Government by
maintaining that "the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, many respected scientists, and
other experts believe that, with firm
leadership and adequate funding," the
project could succeed in achieving a
workable antimissile system for popu-.
lation defense.
"The President's document is prob-
ably timed to influence two upcoming
events: the Geneva arms control talks
and the presentation of the Administra-
tion's defense budget," said Senator
Larry Pressler, a South Dakota Repub-
lican who has opposed the development
of space-based weaponry. "The man on
the street is being led to believe there is
something that will make nuclear
weapons obsolete, but just the opposite
may be true," he added, maintaining
that "Star Wars" research could accel-
erate the arms race.
In a section titled "Assertions and
Facts," intended to counter what the
report says are "misleading claims
and charges" made by critics of the
President's proposal, the report
con-
tended that any judgments about the
project's feasibility "are highly
premature."
The report denied that the project,
would unilaterally accelerate the arms
race, emphasizing that "the Soviets
are already hard at work on advanced
technologies" such as lasers and other
directed-energy weapons.
Regarding charges that the Strategic
Defense Initiative may someday vio-
late the 1972 international treaty that
limits antimissile systems, the report
noted that the treaty "provides for pos-
sible amendments." If the current re-
search program leads to development
of useful hardware, "we would then ad-
dress the question of availing ourselves
of these procedures in order to modify
the treaty," the report added.
The report also denied that the,Presi-
dent's program would mean the milita-
rization of space. "The `militarization
of space' began in the late 1950's, the i
report argued, "when the first Soviet
ballistic missiles were tested."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100500005-4