78-04-A4
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Salt Talks II[edit]
Transcript[edit]Last time, I talked about violations of the SALT-I treaty by the Russians and our failure to protest. Today I'm going to talk a little more about our national defense. I'll be right back. A short time back, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner's Washington bureau reported on a meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and another Brown, General George Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared together before that committee. General Brown is in his final year as our nation's top military commander. Sitting beside the secretary, he made a statement that can only be construed as contradictory to the policies of the present administration. He said, quote, "I worry about the day coming when we're not going to be able to stand up to an aggressor." Unquote. In a week of such appearances before Congressional Committees, the general was careful to avoid any hint of disloyalty to his commander-in-chief, but he explained that as his service comes to an end, he did not want to be accused later on of acquiescing. When a senator remarked that his warnings marked a great change from some of his past statements, the general did not hedge in his reply. He said that uppermost in his mind was the fact that this would be the last time he would submit a posture statement to Congress. Quote, "I feel it would be wrong," he said, "if somebody five years from now asked, 'Where was George Brown during all of this?' and looked up the record and I had said, 'Don't worry, it's all right.' Unquote. Telling the Senators the $126 billion defense budget was too small, he said it should have contained funds for the B-1 Bomber, the MX mobile land-based missile, new infantry combat vehicles and a number of other programs. Aware of the Defense Secretary beside me said, quote, "I don't think he is complacent." Unquote. He did not ask for approval of the present budget but said the time necessary to repair the current imbalance with the Soviet Union made a quick fix impossible and he made it clear that the risk to our security already high would increase. He made it clear that Congress had to share in the blame for our precarious position. "Each year," he said, "I have been a party to this action. We've come to Congress with a reduced program only to have an average of five and a half billion dollars taken out of it every year." Unquote. When a general who's been as loyal to his civilian supervisors as General Brown has been, speaks so forthrightly of our danger we'd better listen. It doesn't cheer me up one bit to have a Defense Department spokesman say the differences between the general and the secretary were only of degree that they were on good terms. He added, quote, "The general is representing the uniformed military and takes a slightly more worried position." Unquote. Well, if he's worried, I'm worried too. Aren't you? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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