18 September 1967: U.S. Department of Defense Press Release - McNamara Announces ABM Deployment

In this major speech, Secretary McNamara stated that the USSR was “now deploying an anti-ballistic missile system.” But he assured the American people that they would “have no reason for alarm” as American destructive capabilities were still strong enough to inflict massive damage in the Soviet Union.

Claiming that money was not the issue, McNamara explained that the U.S. had been cautious in terms of waiting to deploy an ABM system because of the “nuclear action-reaction phenomenon.” In his words: “Were we to deploy a heavy ABM system throughout the United States, the Soviets would clearly be strongly motivated to so increase their offensive capability as to cancel out our defensive advantage.” This, in McNamara’s conception, had been the main strategic problem and the reason for the lack of ABM deployment.

Despite this caution, the Secretary confirmed in the speech that the U.S. had decided to proceed with a Chinese-oriented ABM deployment. He made a point of emphasizing, however, that the decision “in no way indicates that we feel an agreement with the Soviet Union on the limitation of strategic nuclear offensive and defensive forces is any less urgent or desirable.”