78-11-A1
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Salt Talks I[edit]
Transcript[edit]We may not be too far away from a critical decision regarding a new SALT agreement with the Russians. I'll be right back. You might be interested in some timetables as presented by former Secretary of the Air Force Thomas C. Reed. Tom was part of our Sacramento team in the early days and then moved into the Pentagon. By training, he's a nuclear physicist. He challenges the concept that detente has eliminated the possibility of a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union. In a presentation to the American Security Council, he reviewed recent history beginning with the Cuban Missile Crisis 16 years ago. It was October 1962 when the world for six days hung in the brink of nuclear war. Then the Russians blinked, and their missiles were removed from Cuba. President Kennedy expressed the hope that the governments of the world could, "turn their earnest attention to the compelling necessities for ending the arms race and reducing world tensions." Well unfortunately the Soviet Union turned its earnest attention to a massive buildup of military forces. A Soviet deputy foreign minister said, "Never will we be caught like this again." They were caught because we had overwhelming nuclear superiority at the time. Two years later in 1964 Brezhnev had replaced Khrushchev and began the work of keeping that deputy foreign minister's promise. He began increasing the resources dedicated to military programs. By 1969 the Soviets had passed us in the numbers of ICBM, intercontinental ballistic missile, silos. By 1970, with a Gross National Product only half as great as ours, they were spending more on arms than we were. Now follow this timetable Tom Reed has put together, remembering that in 1962 we had about an eight to one edge over the Soviets. By 1971, they outnumbered us in tactical aircraft. By '73, their surface navy outnumbered ours. Also in '73 they flew their Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles, M.I.R.V.s. These are the multiple nuclear warheads carried by one rocket which separate in flight and fly on to different targets. We had them, but thought the Russians were years away from catching up. By 1974 they passed us in the number of submarine launching tubes for nuclear missiles. They also added one million men to their armed forces. By 1975 their spending on strategic offensive nuclear forces was double ours and seven times as much in the field of ballistic missiles. Also in 1975, they began full-scale production and deployment of the Backfire supersonic long-range bomber. They called it a medium-range aircraft but it's capable of attacking targets in the United States. By 1976 they deployed their delta-class submarines equipped with a new 4200-mile missile. We have a comparable submarine system called the trident it won't be online until 1981. In 1977 they demonstrated a non-nuclear weapon capable of knocking our satellites out of space and now it is 1978 and the soviets are preparing to test their fifth generation of ICBMs while they undergo a massive replacement of existing missiles with a fourth generation system. we completed our last Minuteman silo in 1967. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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