30 June 1969: Washington, DC to External- Senate Vote on ABM Deployment

As the ABM debate in Washington raged on, Ambassador Ritchie provided an important update regarding the Safeguard system. The Senate Armed Services Committee had approved the deployment by a vote of 10-7 (along with one abstention). Most significantly, he wrote that “a minority report is to be filed expressing opposition to a major defense system,” for the first time in the memory of most commentators.

Ritchie estimated that the Senate would take up the matter in July or August. The Ambassador predicted that it will be a tight vote (perhaps 51-49) and that unless the administration could “build up significant majority, some retreat from existing proposals may still be decided upon.”