78-04-B1

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War [Panama]

Transcript Several weeks ago on the T.V. debate between Bill Buckley and myself, Admiral Zumwalts (now retired) presented a case for ratifying the proposed Panama Canal treaties. I've been surprised his remarks didn't cause more stir in the press. He said, "we were likelier to lose a nuclear war with Russia, we were likelier to lose a conventional ground war in Europe and we were likelier to lose a naval war" -- in view of the increased size of the Russian fleet. Then his point was that we'd have a better chance of using the canal if Panama were friendly toward us. Now I'm not bringing this up to argue his final point. I want to talk about the frank pessimism he expressed with regard to our strength vis a vis the Russians. We want to avoid a war and that is better achieved by being so strong that a potential enemy is hot tempted to go adventuring. No one denies that the Russians have assembled an offensive force of tanks, mobile artillery, support aircraft and armored personnel carriers on the Western front in Europe superior to our NATO forces. Until recently our deterrent was nuclear superiority. If the Soviets attacked Western Europe we could threaten Russia with nuclear destruction. That, of course, is no longer true. It is at this point that a possible new weapons system is in a sense discovered by us; one which can provide the deterrent we need to any Russian attack. It is the neutron bomb. Very simply it is the dreamed of death ray weapon of science fiction. It kills enemy soldiers but doesn't blow up the surrounding countryside or destroy villages, towns and cities. It won't even destroy an enemy tank--just kill the tank crew. Now some express horror at this and charging immortality, portray those who would use such a weapon as placing a higher value on property than human life. This is sheer unadulterated nonsense. It is harsh sounding, but all war weapons back to the club, the sling and the arrow, are designed to kill the soldiers of the enemy. With gunpower and artillery and later bombs and bombers, war could not be confined to the battlefield . And so came total war with non-combatants outnumbering soldiers in casualties. Here is a deterrent weapon available to us at much lower cost than trying to match the enemy gun for gun, tank for tank, plane for plane. It isn't unreasonable to believe that the Soviets will be more hesitant to send those waves of tanks westward if we have a weapon that can wipe out their crews at virtually no cost to ourselves. Indeed the neutron bomb represents a moral improvement in the horror that is modern war. It just may be that the neutron bomb could be the ideal deterrent weapon--one that wouldn't have to be used. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-04-B1 Production Date 03/13/1978 Book/Page RihoH-99 Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes Panama Canal Debate