RUSSIA RAISES ANTE IN MISSILE GAME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080049-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: December 15, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

United Press International
A rocket in Moscow's Red Square: the Soviet nuclear arms race proceeds.
Russia Raises Ante in
Missile Game
By Chalmers M. Roberts
Washington Post staff writer
A four-year relative stand-
still In the Soviet-American
balance of terror is coming
to an end and a new round
in the nu-
clear arms
race is now
getting un-
der way.
Once again
the Soviet
Union is rais-
ing the ante
and the
United
States Is
moving to
match it.
When Nikita Khrushchev
backed away from the brink
In the Cuba missile crisis,
the Kremlin appeared to ac-
cept a three- or four-to-one
disparity in missiles. Mos-
cow seemed willing to live
with this missile gap since
its_ own smaller force was
sufficient to deter any first
strike by the United States
that the Soviet leaders may
have thought their Ameri-
can counterparts might have
in mind.
NOW DEFENSE Secre-
'tary Robert S. McNamara
has released enough infor-
mation to show that that pe-
riod, If It ever really ex-
isted, is over. The Soviet
Union is moving to Improve
its nuclear posture. visa-vis
the United States.
McNamara first said the
Soviets are deploying an
anti-ballistic missile system
around their cities. He later
reported that Soviet Inter-
continental ballistic missile
production apparently is be-
ing increased.
Furthermore, the Soviets
a r e improving protection
for their ICBMs by harden-
ing the sites from which
they can be fired and by
introducing mobile missiles
which makes their location
harder to detect.
The American response
includes ago-ahead on the
submarine-based Poseidon
missile but so far McNa-
mara has resisted increas-
ing the number of American
ICBMs or putting an anti-
ballistic missile system into
production-
THE UNHAPPY fact is
that McNamara and the
Johnson Administration are
now likely to be charged
with an "anti-missile gap"
much as the Eisenhower Ad-
ministration was charged
with a missile gap. That lat-
ter one turned out to be
phony but not before the
Democrats had used it with
effect in the 1960 Presiden-
tial campaign.
That the "anti-mIsaile
gap" is likely to be used
now by Republicans With
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1968 in mind is evident from
the fact that Gov. George
Romney seized on the idea
in his first TV Interview
(after the November elec-
tion.
Administration officials
freely acknowledge that the
political pressures in the
new Congress probably will
be immense on this issue.
But they haven't figured
out what to do about it.
American and Soviet sci-
entists in unofficial levels
have talked about the anti-
ballistic missile and how it
would bring a new round
in the arms race. But the
subject seems to have been
taboo at the politicaa level,
officials indicate. T h e r e
have been some reports of
conversations on this topic
but if they have taken place
the result appears to have
been nil.
Officials here believe the
Soviet moves have been
taken strictly as military ac-
tion to improve defense ca-
pabilities. Washington tends
to look upon the current
Kremlin leadership as in-
ternally weak and t h u s
susceptible to military pres-
sure on defense issues.
WHETHER THE Kremlin
leaders, in deciding to raise
the nuclear ante, considered
the inevitable Washington
reaction is simply unknown
here. The rule which seems
to have applied, as it has in
the past, is that any weap-
on that is developed is
built.
Vannevar Bush long ago
described the two nuclear
superpowers as "two scor-
pions In a bottle" able to
sting each other to death
but unable to escape the
bottle. They are still there
and about to add some new
stingers.
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