MX an N-bargaining chip?

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 8

MX an N-bargaining chip?

NZPA Washington MX missile plan is under hard scrutiny in Congress and there are questions about whether the Administration really intends to build the missile or wants to bargain it away in arms talks with Moscow. Proposing his plan to deploy the multi warhead MXs in a tight cluster intended to reduce their vulnerability to a Soviet attack, Mr Reagan said on Tuesday that he was firmly committed to seeking agreements with Moscow to reduce nuclear arsenals.

“A secure force keeps others from threatening us...and also increases the prospects of reaching significant arms reductions with the Soviets,” he said. Other officials had described the MX, which they say is accurate enough to knock out Soviet missile silos, as a bargaining chip in the Geneva arms

talks. Asked if this were still the case, a White House spokesman, Larry Speakes, said: “It’s certainly our hope, but you have to deal with the realities of the situation... and the realities at present might indicate otherwise.”

Some officials say that the MX, due to become operational in 1986, is not a bargaining chip and the United States plans to deploy the missile even if there is an arms accord. They say that the new missile would be needed to match the accuracy of Soviet missiles and prevent nuclear blackmail by Moscow. But the number of missiles that are ultimately built would be open to negotiation with the Kremlin. In his televised speech on Monday, Mr Reagan referred to charts which he said demonstrated Moscow’s “decided advantage” in nuclear arms. But critics in Congress

and elsewhere say he failed to mention that in the number of warheads held by both sides — some 7500 each — the nuclear balance is about even.

Mr Reagan’s supporters concede that he may face his toughest battle yet in persuading Congress to approve the controversial MX scheme. Congressmen killed off his proposal 13 months ago to install 40 MXs in existing, specially hardened missile silos while the search went on for a better deployment system. Congress then said that the missiles would still be too vulnerable and told the President to come back with a permanent plan. In 1979, the then President Jimmy Carter had proposed a “race track” plan to shunt 200 MX missiles among 4600 concrete shelters to confuse the Soviet Union. Mr Reagan later rejected the plan as too costly and complex and said

it would leave the missiles vulnerable to a first strike.

But he has had problems finding a workable alternative and even many of his conservative backers are questioning the “dense pack” plan, the theory of which has never been tested.

Senator John Tower (Rep., Texas) chairman of the Senate Armed Services Comirtittee, said he would back the plan if it worked., but promised full hearings to explore whether, it would. Democrats have vowed to try to win support for killing the weapon in the Senate and the House of Representatives. '

Economic considerations are also likely to influence a final decision. MX will'cost at least $3O billion before inflation is taken into account, and Congress will hear next week of Federal deficits' that could reach or exceed $2OO billion next y’ear.