Word: midgetman
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Bush criticized Dukakis for opposing the MX and Midgetman missiles while also saying he wants to modernize the land-based U.S. strate force...
...first agreement reducing nuclear arms, which a freeze would have precluded. Dukakis responded that back in 1982, Bush waffled somewhat on the freeze and insisted it should not be a partisan issue. Bush also attacked Dukakis for wanting "unilaterally" to do away with such weapons as the MX and Midgetman missiles. "When we are negotiating with the Soviet Union, I'm not going to give away a couple of aces" beforehand, he asserted. Dukakis retorted that Bush was refusing to make the hard choices among different types of military spending that the nation's budget stringencies mandate. For example...
Moreover, Dukakis can seize the initiative on the defense issue by noting the hypocrisy in Bush's positions. Although Bush is fond of using the Midgetman and MX missles in his speeches, it would be somewhat awkward for him to explain why "his" Administration dumped the Midgetman in Congress as "too expensive," or why it scrapped Carter's plans to deploy the MX in the Southwest without offering an alternative, giving it a quiet death...
...complex. The Reagan Administration wants to deploy the ten-warhead MX on railroad cars -- a scheme that might be even more vulnerable to surprise attack than our current system of triple-warhead Minuteman ICBMs in underground silos. Many in Congress (along with Schlesinger and myself) favor the single-warhead Midgetman deployed on mobile launchers, but the very high cost of such a system cannot be ignored. Another option consistent with Dukakis' position would be the deployment of Minuteman in multiple protective shelters (the so- called shell game). The real test for the next President is whether he can achieve...
...Soviet Union's military incentive for compromise and thus destroy much of America's leverage in negotiations. In recent months, as you have moved toward the political center, you have acknowledged the continued necessity for nuclear deterrence and have indicated that, despite your opposition to the MX and Midgetman, you are not necessarily against a new ICBM in principle. Yet you will find that any new missile program is impossible unless you back off from your commitment to a missile test-flight ban. We cannot have a new missile system unless we test...