WHY SDI NEEDS A JUMP-START

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660035-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: June 6, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660035-4
The WeSh;ngton Post _ _
The New York Times
The Washington Times _
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor _
New York Oaily Nsws
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
STAT
Why SDI needs ajump-START
uring the Persian Gulf ~tiar the ent,re trorld
?'as amazed at pictures illustrating the accu-
racy of high-tech American airplanes and
ordnance. But even though our pilots en-
joyed absolute control of the skies over Iraq, there
wasn't much they could do on cloudy evenings to stop
Saddam Hussein's terrorists from rolling out prim-
itive,truck-mounted Scud missiles and launching them
in the direction of Tel Aviv Had Saddam had nuclear
warheads, these much-derided and highl}? inaccurate
missiles would have been plenty accurate to execute a
latter-day Holocaust, or at least credibl}? threaten one.
Tb terrorize the world, Saddam ?~ould not have
needed the 10-warhead, rail-mobile SS-?4 and the one-
warhead, truck-mounted SS-25 intercontinental ballis-
tic missile which round out the Soviet nuclear stock-
pile. 1Vor would he have needed the so-called "Satan"
SS-18 ,ti1od-5 heavy ICBM, which carries as many 14
warheads.
No, Saddam would not have needed them. But Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev, who is asking the West
for tens of billions in aid, thought he needed them so
badly that he has spent far more money than he can
ever get back in Western aid to develop, improve and
deploy these weapons of mass destruction.
Why? Because they are the chips that buy the Sovi-
ets a supetpowter seat in the game of world politics. If
Mr. Gorbachev were to surrender his ability to annihi-
late the American or European peoples, he would have
little influence over the policies of the West.
Mr. Gorbachev may be too shrewd and subtle a
poker player to ever flash his revolver openly: But some
of his subordinates are not. Last week, for example,
Col. Viktor Alksnis, whom former Foreign Minister
Eduard' Shevardnadze dubbed the "Black Colonel;'
warned the West of nuclear annihilation if it refused
to dump more lucre into the Kremlin's coffers. "If civil
war here is unavoidable, it will involvle nuclear arms
and ??eapons of mass destruction;' he told ~; 13r~~;~;?.
magazine. "des, ?~e shall perish, but ice shall take ~;;~
?'hole world to the grave. you ?~ill perish ~+ ith us. (}:~~; ~~
?~ill be no borders. The conflict will splash user .hrn'.
first into neighboring countries, then into a ~rur!~ `~;-
tastrophe:'
Meam~?hile CIA Director Wiliam Webster roles rc-
rters last week there is evidence that the J?t [r'.;
emse ves are uneas a ut securut t eu nu ~es ,n ~~
civi war. An B ertz re rt m e 'as rn~Jt,m
Mmes at a recent CIA report reveals that the ~o~ ;eta
have recentl de to ed 18 new launchers for ~~-,~
missiles. Just last August, Mr. S evar nadze prorn,se
the United States that no new such launchers ~~~ould he
deployed after January.
How is the Bush administration responding to ~h~
Soviet bluff and bluster and continuing nuclear army
buildup? Mainly by pulling out all the stops to ad~?ance
a strategic arms reduction treaty.
Unfortunately, the START treaty that i~Ir. Bush
hopes to sign will work to the detriment of L'.S. security
It will increase the power of the Soviet nuclear arsenal
relative to the US. deterrent. Major treaty safeguards
have been negotiated away. Mobile missiles, which
America has never built, will not be banned. Thus
Soviet SS-24s and SS-25s will remain. Modernization of
missiles will continue. A force of 308 Soviet SS-18 "~Iod
4s"will be reduced to 154 SS-18 "Mod Ss:' The 154 ~Iod
Ss could do the same job as 308 Mod 4s.
America failed to counter Saddam's Scuds with
moral suasion and a flight wing of Stealth fighters. But
we did knock some down with a primitive anti-ballistic
missile called the patriot. If Mr. Bush wants to secure
America against the threat posed by the Soviet nuclear
buildup and Soviet civil instability, he should push
energetically to persuade Congress that now is the
time to rejuvenate America's strategic deterrent and
begin building the Strategic Defense Initiative.
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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660035-4