Word: sentineled
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Ideally, decisions concerning complicated weaponry?and the Sentinel system is one of the most complicated ever devised?should be the quiet business of Government: its civilian leaders, military men and scientists. That has not been so with the ABM, as the defensive system is now known. The question of whether the U.S. should install an ABM network?and how extensive that network should be?has suddenly become a national issue that has immense strategic, political and social ramifications for the American people and perhaps the rest of the world. The debate over that issue, warned New York Republican Senator Jacob...
...President facing this kind of situation would have a major problem. For Richard Nixon, who must contend with opposition majorities on Capitol Hill and try to govern by conciliation, the situation is particularly hazardous. As the Sentinel dispute heated up, he said that he would announce his ABM policy this week. By any reckoning, it is the biggest decision of his Administration to date?and it could bring down righteous wrath on Nixon's head no matter how he decides...
There is even dispute over ABM's likely adversary. Sentinel has long been billed as a "thin" defense, suitable only against a Chinese attack. Yet some of its strongest supporters?and critics?view it as the beginning of a "thick" shield to counter Russian strength. One point seems certain: if Washington and Moscow decide to invest heavily in ABMs, the world will see a new watershed in nuclear weaponry...
...Capitol Hill, the Senate particularly has been riven by the issue. Members have been choosing sides without regard to party affiliation. Last week the Foreign Relations Committee, which normally has no jurisdiction over weapons procurement, issued a formal call for delay in Sentinel's deployment. One of the committee's main arguments is that the ABM program contravenes the intent of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty just at a time when Moscow at last seems genuinely interested in exploring ways to curb the arms race. The ABM dispute may also provide the first major confrontation between Richard Nixon and his possible...
...sites and began physical work on the system. Some of the areas considered were choice suburban locations near big cities, and many of ABM's neighbors-to-be hollered their objections so loudly that their representatives in Congress had to take notice. For legislators who were already skeptical of Sentinel, time to do anything about it seemed to be running out. Since the first appropriations for construction and pro curement were approved last year, this year's defense budget might be the last opportunity to halt or slow the undertaking...