JOINT CHIEFS SEE ABM AS A CRISIS DETERRENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300090076-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: February 17, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300090076-3
Cuba Confrontation Cited
Joint Chie IS See ABM
As a Crisis Deterrent
By George C. Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
The United States must Staff argue in a still secret
build a missile defense to position paper.
keep the kind of strategic This view conflicts with
edge that won the Cuban mis- Ithat of Defense Secretary
sile crisis, the Joint Chiefs of Robert S. McNamara, who
favors foregoing an ABM
(anti-ballistic - missile) system
and relying on offensive mis-
siles f o r "deterrence"-the
strategy of making nuclear
var so unthinkable that it will
iot occur.
"Deterrence is a combina-
ion of forces in being and
tate of. mind," the Chiefs
tate. "Should the Soviets come
o believe that their ballistic
oissile defense, coupled with
i nuclear attack on the United
States, would limit damage to
he Soviet Union to a level ac-
,eptable to them - whatever
hat level is-our forces would
io longer deter, and the first
?rinciple of our security pol-
.cy is gone."
The Chiefs agree with Mc.
Namara that the ability to de-
stroy an attacker with offensive
m.ssiles is basic to deterrence.
But they argue that the oppo-
site is also true-that deter-
rence decreases in proportion
to how much the enemy fig-
ures it could blunt a retali-
atory atack, The b l u n t i n g
ABM system therefore cannot
be separated out in figuring
deterrent value, they main-
tain.
U.S. nuclear superiority has
been so overwhelming up to
See CHIEFS, A6, Col. 1
Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300090076-3