https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/100a4360f92592fb882c11f34fd6e7b2.pdf 8d2215368659855a36eb9acc58727e8d PDF Text Text ocujrfent disclosed under the Access toAnforma/tion Act ent divulgue en verti| deJj&ofsOr/pcCesjB Tinformati m DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIR^ Subject Date £t.8Mi?. April J4/69 Publication .T^,...Globe_]&___Mail. Oasis in desert of dreary testimony Professor criticizes ABM By TERRANCE WILLS ' Globe and Mail Correspondent WASHINGTON — A Harvard law professor yesterday tried to reduce to layman's terms some of the complex arguments surrounding the proposed U.S. Safeguard antiballistic missile system. "Just as a matter of plain common sense, I think it is very hard to ask the American people to buy a $6.5-billion pig-in-a-poke. If I were buying a gun to defend my house against burglars, and half the gun experts I talked to told me it wouldn't shoot, and I knew I couldn't try it out until the burglars got there, I think I would start looking around for some other way to protect my house," Professor Abram Chayes told the Senate armed services committee.. The committee has heard conflicting expert testimony on whether the system will work. If it doesn't, '• if the ABMs do not intercept and disarm invading. missiles as they are designed to do, then the U.S. public would be in no shape "to write and complain to the manufacturer," said Prof Chayes, former legal adviser to the U.S. State Department. Prof. Chayes' down-to-earth language was an oasis in a day of testimony replete with as $6.5 billion pig-in-a-poke' scientific jargon. In fact, one of the technicians guarding some of the many television cables running across the floor of the big committee room was sufficiently refreshed to glance up from the adventure magazine which absorbed* him all morning. The professor's sobering pricks of humor also helped ' ease some of the stress in the room brought on by the nature of the subject—nuclear war—and the controversy that the proposed Safeguard syst e m has generated on Capitil T^ill and in the scientific community, which is "currently so divided on the issue that it is almost impossible to make any d e f i n i t i v e statement which will not generate sincere emotionally heated dispu-. tation." Dr. Frederick Seitz* president of the National Academy of Sciences, told the committee. Dr. Seitz, who is also president of Rockefeller University, testified in support of Safeguard, and said that a "new level of reliability of c o m p o n e n t s " had been achieved that made him think the ABM system will work. However, he advocated a continuing test program. "Are you suggesting we fire these missiles into Canada to test them?" Senator Stuart Symington (D, Missouri) demanded. The nuclear-armed ABMs would first be deployed around Minuteman ICBM bases in Montana and North Dakota and make most of their interceptions in Canadian air space. Dr. Seitz said he was suggesting only that there be continuing tests on the components on testing grounds. One of the objections of the Safeguard opponents is that the system can never be really checked in full until the moment of truth, and that a saturation attack could overcome the defense. Dr. George Rathjens, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who along with Prof. Chayes testified against Safeguard yesterday, said it would' take the Russians only from two' to five months tb turn out enough new nuclear warheads to' overcome the ABM defense. Senator Symington, former Secretary of the Air Force and a member of the national Security Council' during the Second World War, leads the minority element on.the powerful armed services committee opposing safeguard. But while the committee will almost certainly recommend in favor of the system, it will still face an extremely close vote on the Senate floor. Senator Symington criticized the cost of the program yesterday after Dr. Rathjens told the committee: "The present proposal is a poor one on technical, military and economic grounds." One of the reasons for inflation is the massive spending on arms "we're putting up for this military establishment," Senator Symington said. "One of the reasons is that'we have the professional anti-Communists who in true Christian spirit say: 'Let's hate them all.' " Dr. Albert Wohlstetter, a mathematician and economist at the University of Chicago, who with Dr. Seitz supported Safeguard, agreed: "The defense budget has a good deal of fat that can be cut without substantial harm . . . but the $8-billion-plus strategic budget makes up a small part of the total defense budget." x �fit disclosed unde'i TWeAUM fo-fhtUi n\uliui\ Ait y divulgue en v e r t u ^ e frZcpsmTaxces a Tinform pon _ % DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Subject MM..L tr.Q,.m...Ar.. Date April.. 2.4, 19.6.9 Publication The....New...Iprk...Times.. Stennis Compromise on ABM HmEed By JOHN W.FINNEY Special to Tha New Tort Times WASHINGTON, April 23 — Senator John Stennis, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, showed signs today of groping around for a compromise on the missile defense issue. The signs were still indistinct, but in the opinion of some of his colleagues it appeared that the Administration no longer could count upon Senator Stennis as a stalwart, down-the-line supporter of its proposed Safeguard antiballistic missile system. As the Armed Services Committee concluded two days of public hearings, Senator Stennis made clear that he was inclined to proceed with deployment of an ABM system. But, at the same time, the Mississippi Democrat appearedto be opening the door for some significant modifications in the proposed Safeguard system. In the opinion of sdme~'of his colleagues, Senator Stennis has been shaken in his previous unquestioning support of the Safeguard program by a series of political and technical developments. In the last two days, the committee has been exposed for the first time to the pros and cons on the ABM issue. Senator Stennis, in his questioning, has evidenced an interest in the argument raised by critics that the Safeguard system was not properly designed to carry out its principal mission of protecting the Minuteman missile force. Redesign Held Possible This raised the possibility that the Senator might suggest some redesign of the Safeguard system, partly to meet the technical objections, but more importantly to bring about some unity within his committee on the issue. In his new role as committee chairman, Senator Stennis. is -disturbed over the division •that has developed within his j committee over the ABM issue land is worried about the possibility that the committee may jbe repudiated on the Senate ifloor if it simply adopts, the 'Administration's proposal without c h a n g e ^ _ _ . List on Otslde uExperts At this point, at least seven members of the 18-man comIn response to committee inmittee are believed opposed to quiries on what outside experts the Safeguard system. Rather were consulted by the Pentathan go to the floor with his gon in reaching the Safeguard ranks so divided, Senator Sten- decision, the Pentagon suliedpp nis is under considerable pres- a list of 21 members of the sure to reach some compromise President's Science Advisory tbat could reunite a t least most Committee who it said were of the committee. "repsent at discussion of ABM In terms of national priori- with Dr. John S. Foster Jr," ties, Senator Stennis, like many director of defense research of the ABM critics, also is and engineering. increasingly worried about do- 5th & last add missiles 50 w mestic problems. In a footnotet o the hearing' As he pointed out to a reporter during a break in the day-long hearing, at this point he is more concerned about the record, the committee noted, '•campus threat" than the "mis "This meeting was held on March 17 and 18, although the sile threat." decision to proceed with the Mansfield Proposal Safeguard was announced on As a conservative, Senator March 14." Stennis obviously is disturbed The Foreign Relations Com over the involvement of Negro radicals in the campus protests. mittee continued to build up But still his line of reasoning its case against the Safeguard is one that brings hhn closer to sytem oday with a secret briefthe position of Senate majority ing by Richard Helms, direcleader Mike Mansfield, -one - of tor of Central Intelligence, on the leaders in the ABM opposi- Soviet missile developments, After the briefing, Senator tionJ t h a t is that the time has come to strike a balance be- Albert Gore, who has chal tween domestic and military leiiged Secretary of Defense Melvin" ~R. Laird's assessment needs. Senator Mansfield, in an in- of the Soviet missile threats terview, urged the Administra- said, "I see no reason to change tion to set a "date certain"— my estimate of the situation." It has been-Senator Gore's perhaps in early June—for beginning strategic; arms; limita- contention that the United tion talks with the" Soviet States possesses such a multiplicity of strategic warheads Union. I f no progress has beeri made that the Soviet Union could not in the talks by the end of the) hope to achieve a "first strike capability," as contended by Mr. Laird. year, he said, then there will The core statement,'obviously be."more justification" for pro- reflecting assessments offered: ceeding with an ABM system. by Mr. Helms, provided a furImplicit in his suggestion ther hint of the division within intelligence-military com was a possible compromise for. the munity-over the potential So the Administration, namely au- viet military threat. thorization of the system but , The same division developed a delay in its deployment until amo'ng I r a d e m i r e ^ e r t s " testi it is seen whether the Russians ^ g b e f o r e ^ A r m e d S e r v i c e s are interested in a limitation Committee. The committee 6 S a,Xd offensive stra £L& ^ o i Y L " heard today from Dr. George tegic missiles, Also implicit in his sug- Rathjens, professor of political gestion was a signal to the science at the Massachusetts Administration that it might be Institute of Technology, and Arrisking a serious, political de- ram Chayes, Harvard Law feat in the Senate if it refused School professor — both ABM opponents—-afcJ br. Frederick to compromise. . Contending that the ariti- Seitz, the retiring president of ABM forces were "gaining the National Academy of Scistrength;" Senator Mansfield ences, and Dr. Albert Wholstetpredicted that the issue would ter, professor of economics at be determined by one or two, the Uinversity of Chicago, both at the most three, votes. An ABM supporters.; Administration victory by such a narrow margin, he observed, would be of "little consequence." The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a stronghold of the ABM opposition, meanwhile caught the Defense Department in what some members regarded as a deception in presentation of its case for the Safeguard system. A 000241 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDBM00235 Title A name given to the resource Transcript from Globe and Mail Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 4/24/1969 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived RG25-A-3-c, file 27-11-7, "DEFENCE - CONVENTIONAL AND NUCLEAR ARMAMENTS - ANTI - BALLISTIC MISSILES (ABM) = DEFENSE - ARMEMENTS DE TYPE CLASSIQUE ET NUCLEAIRE - ENGINS ANTIMISSILES (ABM)," vol. 10357, part 6, Library and Archives Canada, (LAC). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource External Affairs Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource Anti-ballistic missiles Description An account of the resource Professor Criticizes ABM Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en