U.S. NUCLEAR POWER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31323, 20 March 1967, Page 13

U.S. NUCLEAR POWER

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 19. If the Soviet Union launched a nuclear attack the United States had the power to kill at least 120 million Russians in retaliation, according to the United States Secretary of Defence, Mr Robert McNamara. Mr McNamara told the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees when he testified before them in secret, towards the end of January that this death toll could easily be increased. The United States had no need to build an extensive anti-missile system, he said. According to censored transcripts of the testimony released yesterday, Mr McNamara discounted the effectiveness of Soviet anti-missile missiles now being set up around Moscow, and possibly elsewhere.

Replying to Senators who felt the United States would make an immediate start on setting up Nike X anti-ballis-tic missile defences, Mr McNamara conceded that the country could afford to build such a system over a period of several years. But he added: “I only argue against it because it costs 40,000 million dollars and would not be effective. The Soviets would take action to offset it.” Mr McNamara said that it was not the money that concerned him.

“What we would buy in this case, in may opinion, would offer no addition to our security and no addition to our defence,” he told the Senators. In the event of a Soviet nuclear attack on the United States, Mr McNamara said, the retaliatory blow would be aimed at their people. In spite of Soviet antimissile missiles, “I think we could all agree that if they struck us first, we are going to target our weapons against their society . . . destroy 120 millions of them,” he said.

The Soviet Union he said, had “an absolute religious fanaticism on the subject of defence.” Proof of this could be found in the huge amounts spent on ground-to-air missile de-

fences against bomber attacks, which, Mr McNamara said, were now obsolete. He added that this attitude was based on the Soviet Union’s fear of a first attack by the United States in spite of America’s tradition and policy of never striking first. He was making this information public, Mr McNamara said, because “we want our people, our allies and the Soviets, to be under no misunderstanding as to our strength. “It isn’t enough for us to have the force. We must convince them we have it,” he added.

Quake Reported.—The National Earthquake Information Centre reported that an earthquake rocked the sparselypopulated Kuril Islands in the North Pacific late last night. —Washington, March 19.