THESE DAYS MCNAMARA LEFT-HANDEDLY ADMITS ERROR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080044-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: November 28, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080044-9
THE WASHINGTON POST Monday, Nov. 28, 1966 All
These Days . .
McNamara Leit-Handedly
RIGHT AFTER the Re-
publicans racked up some
good gains in Congress at
the polls, Defense Secretary
Robert S.
McN a m ara
put In a big
p o 1 1 t I-
cal stop-loss
order. He
j o u r neyed
all the way
to the LBJ
ranch to an-
nounce that
there was
"consid-
erable evidence" that Soviet
Russia was building and de-
ploying an anti-ballistic mis-
sile system, and that he had
a way to negate it.
His suggested antidote
was not to counter with an
anti-missile missile system
of our own, but to arm our
Polaris submarines, at a cost
of $2.6 billion, with a bigger
atomic missile, the Posei-
don, which would be able
to penetrate the new Soviet
defenses. Presumably the
present Polaris missile isn't
good enough.
To anyone with a long
memory, the McNamara
performance amounts to an
admission that a great mis-
take has been made by Ad-
ministration policy planners.
For ever since .1961 the
Pentagon has been proceed-
ing on the assumption that
if the United States re-
frained from developing an
anti-missile missile system,
the Russians would refrain
too.
Apparently we have made
a terribly bad guess, and
McNamara is left to pick
up the pieces as best he can
lest the whole business re-
coil upon the Democratic
Party when certain nosy
Republican Congressmen be-
gin to ask questions.
THE IDEA that the way to
the Russians from
keep
building an anti-missile mis-
sile was to let our own anti-
missile program languish
has been attributed to Pro-
fessor Jerome Wiesner of
the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Whether this
was the Professor's own
brainchild, or whether it
was fathered by a score of
people in the unilateral dis-
q?niament lobby, is a good
estu,r
Admits Error
But Professor Wiesner
served as President John F.
Kennedy's special adviser on
technology at the time that
the decision was made not to
go ahead with an anti-missile
missile network. During this
period Wiesner was arguing
that "one of the potential
destabilization elements in
the present nuclear stand-
off is the possibility that one
of the rival powers might
develop a successful anti-
missile defense.
"Weisner was all for keep-
ing the so-called "NikeZeus
anti-ballistic missile in a
state of "research and de-
velopment," not in deploy-
ment. It was anything to
keep the Soviets from being
? By John Chamberlain
seared into putting on full
steam ahead to develop and
deploy an anti-missile grid
that might negate the threat
of the U.S. Polaris sub-
marine.
The policy of not provok-
ing the Russian bear in the
anti-missile missile business
has flopped by Secretary Mc-
Namara's own admission. To
save face, the Secretary is
falling back on the old
football axiom, that the best
defense is a good offense.
When Congress recon-
venes, Secretary McNamara
may well be on the hot seat
when called upon to explain
his post-election political
stop-loss order.
? 1966, King Features syndicate. Inc.
Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080044-9