Public Broadcast Laboratory; 206; Defense Decisions

as bbdo in hama reveal examines the force of the opposition will lead the pentagon to sell a process to wire involving the military want new and better weapons why now rubio rubio how would you like to get your hands on five billion dollars actually that's one of the long view of the

factors but congress though by no means unanimously and without any real opportunity for the public to say yea or nay has already committed to build maybe a highly controversial defense system against enemy missiles at the field we're about the three shows defense systems today are so huge and complex songs needed to build them are so bad that they generate almost irresistible momentum making it almost impossible to reverse invasions once they almost but not quite following that film really only for briefly with one confirmed senator republican shelved for three of illinois one of the public can or should have a stronger hand or a real hand at all in the defense of a hit making process a process that not only directly affect our lives but potentially all life on this planet go going forward

junior are obviously critical you'll be prepared but we the arabs and the israelis also there to put humans on world and its armies of ways you're going towards a constant discussion of a reverence for history we still one of the old way that's because the old way

of our new england can you think of and while others may have a new arms race that during his campaign president nixon said there was a security gap years are doing bar mitzvahs oh yeah i don't get into an argument and i certainly don't believe that we're faced with a major security gap i think that the important thing that's happened in recent years the

soviets have bought a large survivable protect the second part we're like our own and that's something that we could have prevented the fact that white knuckle effect that i think i'm looking at just before their relationship with terribly important or virus that is an important is that they can survive the soviet attack strike back and destroy them now they're from that point to the relative numbers of forces on their side are tied and the important thing it's called uncovered it's bleak who determines how much difference is enough and a powerful military industrial alliance get more than a chair for some necessary weapons commitments

impose excessive cost of the fence we require every tax dollar for the fence is often one less for bankruptcy case for america's poor and setting priorities balancing defense against domestically is the challenge facing the new administration delayed a shopping list of america's defenders is long and expensive photo athletes for example is slated to be recruited by the poolside and a new super missile which carries up to ten cent reporter at a cost of ten billion dollars wide the nation five thousand and forty five we have one

girl in a few years the nuclear arsenal could reach ten thousand workers the pentagon says they are needed to overwhelm the missile defense the soviets in the new york times' diagrams the multiple orchid called a nervous where the head of a separate city leaving five years even more difficult in vietnam every dollar that went into vietnam a one hundred billion dollar price tag on a military post vietnam for the entire cost of the war former army chief of staff general george burger discusses upcoming request for weapons

and i convey live a million org they modified will absorb any of the slack may appear in the budget of resolve in a reduction of expenditures in vietnam for instance we have to develop a new airplane replaced the have won eleven series with both the navy and airport airports wants a new bomber i don't know our space program is going to require a great deal of it anyone and there will be other kinds of i understand of military service as a user review of pokemon and yet i think that they're actually the senate armed services committee where repair report points out

how are we are we are the criminal element new report indicates a new tactical error correction so i think that this is another area which is going to require a a large expenditure of money and this is going to increase the size of the budget are they actually using them thank you that you haven't mined and that could well cut down the budget spending but also for their expenditures for health and education and many of the same time and i am self

defense spending domestic civilian spending and the desire to attack nuclear that he wants four more likely than strategist argue that the carrier concept is obsolete you go to land based plains of all types of such long range others say the fifteen attack carriers we know have are not used more efficiently and richie porte in one hundred and forty americans really

a billion dollars is twice what america is now devoting to head start pre kindergarten program for giving children a billion dollars for a carry assist in subsidized housing wunderkind who are american families it would build five hundred new city grade schools do your reports you know we played another bubble is a new generation of long range bombers well general we're the head of the joint chiefs of staff testified that the main reason the way

that the soviet union and back again apparently now we need government will make around reviewing the whole thing is bad and that didn't stop this is the army's new cheyenne is armed with missiles fired electronically he only wants to buy some three hundred and two to three million dollars each almost a billion dollars critics charge the sharia law or fifteen seconds here to the unknown target for the city that even a simple sniper fire in defending the cheyenne decision would not discuss its image the air force also wants funds to develop a military capability in outer space

it was launched what it calls a land border the laboratory in which airports astronauts would revise space taxi could save a billion dollar program comes close to violating the treaty forbidding the use of outer space for more than the workers danny b side seeking new things with services you've told are a lot of different systems ways things here is this army fell gets distributed to hundreds of tv stations described norad the north american air defense system and shows how we were promised was water coming in for a nuclear attack it was a directive from the deep inside about in colorado would go after the soviet bombers ranking strategist however about whether the soviets would never use bombers fordham fear attack they say the russians have not worked on long range bomber development for years because they have intercontinental ballistic missiles an underground

five thousand so these campy style therefore why use relatively slow moving planes or the river where america now spends more than a billion dollars a year to run our system that contributes a little more security the law in its full blown for me it is the biggest and most controversial program the military as a writer and many distinguished americans feel the atm will be useless they warmed up a five billion dollars program underway is likely to be expanded into of fifty or one hundred billion dollars has to be held will look carefully issue later in this program no longer have a rational alternative

i'm going they're no longer lead you unconditionally because it can no longer heard that you were a nuclear deal that read by wind and water and beer well in doubt the great and the mall the rich in the pot commit any uncommitted alike mankind much for an end to war or when amanda mankind that call a truce over a very different decision making process works but russian oil rig in a way the president makes defense decisions the joint chiefs of staff and secretary of defense advise the president he waved their request which now take fifty cents of every tax dollar against the nation's other needs and sets priorities events admits his program to congress for funding in practice however

defends decision making is not actually there are powerful groups in and out of government with employees there are individual congressman with enormous power there are political considerations defense decision making seems to be shaped by fire forces the process symbolize perhaps by the shape of the pentagon itself as one of bitter battle royale and alliances involving the president or with his civilian defense officials axon military demands congress which has the purse strings the military who asked for the best to fight with defense industry much of a dependent on weapons contracts and finally we'll looks at each course beginning with the military demands for weapons of war and the man appointed start with the armed services

they are charged with the nation say most white and i do that like to be prepared for anything and everything from another nationally public support as a nation we honor the uniform on the record five times in history we've turned to soldiers take them to leave us but at the same time our tradition calls for civilian control of the armed forces and president johnson's last budget coming out next week the services as one hundred and twenty billion dollars for defense they were caught by a third to about eighty billion every defense department that i've ever known of under all of demonstration or more money than whoever get in fact the president usually the first one that caught back outside of the secretary defense cutting back

its of the service with northwest it very differently ever given every survey of all the money they want if we were in every dollar the different services wanted we wouldn't have money for anything else in the battle for funds the military have their own attack force scores of legislative liaison officers there on capitol hill every day making sure the congress here's the military side of the story a legislative books the pentagon completed its way senator for the part a leader in the fight against the atm years he was the target of a pentagon press release it seemed to suggest that he was against protecting the public from nuclear attack later today the center or i confirm that we were going or for this kind of amendment to hold back on the year in spring missiles that a lot with the press release of the pentagon that the first site for a thin screen ballistic missiles that would be detroit michigan therefore i can tell you that well i'd maybe it was accidental i said it was a mind meld with the record but going to charity

no you weren't so navy yard in charleston south carolina when the navy or any of the services want something they go to be armed services committees in congress if they can convince the base for congressional committees almost automatic whenever a candid scenes the navy tries to put new things in charleston the district of congressman and the rivers who happens to be chairman of the house armed services committee one of the most powerful posts and columnist charleston recently got a second call ourselves caught in that supposedly was to have gone to a new

england bias rivers in turn is an ardent maybe supported also a champion of the atm would like to see the navy with its own system besides working on congress directly the services were their own civilian reserve officers association this one it has built an average in the last congress wanted to thirty nine congressman conditions helped kill the merchandise are on the national guard which would've saved each service also has a broader civilian support group and the army's association of the united states army is essentially a lobbying group of ex military man who keep up their arms and which supports the group in stages the annual exhibition and can mention beer horse association the navy we also helped push the minds of those services at last recession flying team of the air force and some would say

thunderbird school the country giving its convention and what everybody's impressed by the incredible at supersonic speed demon i do he's been sometimes those public directly or through congress by several hundred brickell are the father of the new community can always find a

sympathetic committee to hear his charges of a submarine they're also recently launched using conditioning which offshore platform two weeks before the presidential election and about civilians ok recovers long standing demand for new super silence president nixon had been campaigning for more naked power than two hundred million dollars in quarters of the first of the nixon congress is mistaken for the money the levers are in the hands of a few colorful now the armed services and appropriations committees which have reputations of being vigorously pro military the staff of the house armed services committee is headed by a brigadier general in the marine reserves programs like the video is on sale through congress and in the last session a twenty one billion dollar military bill passed the house after less than two hours of

discussion poverty programs are sometimes debated for weeks congressman robert litan of armed services says even if the committee was that it couldn't block the pentagon's of overwhelming forces when they're twelve hours and maybe a fork out of our of our own security prior to graduate with the pentagon with their tremendous array of capability and we got the little guy i think that we come out on top and many of the power but the top of people are getting everything open video found that we can well and that we're really not probably done the high ethical factor been prevented by the problem there this campaign sign thanks congressman and the writers for the military

facilities in charleston it urges his religion and hamas is more of the same last november he won his fifteenth for having me your problems but it became a parliamentary affairs his district was they would not only buy them and move here the airports reopened a huge here transport command based in charleston the navy and from charleston itself because of the concentration of some facilities there when charged with pork barreling rivers answers i didn't go to congress to preside over the liquidation of the first congressional district thanks because we can ms bishop rivers is now so far he's convinced him to

forget which we can scratch a lady shop in his view of the world seems to preclude any arms agreement we can have the world that we've got a long list of cohesion or a low pressure and promise is islands and anything they play anything they arrived by treaty to what they are saying that voters would have no tolerance and a common as anywhere on earth a statue of rivers was put up by an appreciative business community expands on the main highway recently renamed rivers avenue campaign billboards also takes credit for the defense industries outgoing unlocking which have located in charleston big firms often reward their friends in congress this way for help with contracts the old section of the city is no military payroll of about two hundred million dollars house is not

unique for the last half century seven congressmen have dominated the military commissions under dispute to become huge service complexes in charleston there's hardly a family whose income doesn't depend on the military for the first time in years over rivers was challenged in the democratic primary and his opponent was a lawyer george vi iran syria with all about half of charleston as black only fifteen percent of the vote to campaign for and that dependency on the military and diversify the economy the congressman's campaign was built around the slogan rivers rivers the navy

pay raises i think it's just just a great guy for everybody really common sentiment got in the he got so much chaff in the navy i had everything that i want i think that would be a man offers either presidency this will be a lot better although the man in the house of representatives voted against the main military appropriations bill last session congressman henry royce tells why he didn't go along with the recommendations of the river's committee at the mobile app for mobile liberal hawk white gentleman who represent districts which are lush with a defense contract and of course it takes no great stretch of imagination for them too back at her the

other evidence of any kind of debate within the armed services committee and the challenge the leadership of the committees data you that getting work our bangs and thirty five another one of the airport's them or maybe they can in the senate there is a debate on defense spending a powerful committee chairman mike john stennis of mississippi will almost single handedly he confirms here with general earl weaver chairman of the joint chiefs of staff the new congress will consider us tennis reporter jane moore bombers and missiles always obey lot of and now from the up have been taken in the direction of all three revival want jobs the committee has developed back to your bill are we a way and there we will follow

way they believe are up which followed in rapid more rapid rate not only going to magnify among the witnesses all right the president plays the central role of decision making the president writes the nation's budget sets farm policy and commands our nuclear arsenal he ultimately burden of keeping america safe you also constantly faces the job of balancing the chinese against other imperative helping thirty million blacks and whites to living in poverty upgrading the nation's schools untangling our massive transportation start cleaning our air and water it balancing the budget committee and cutting taxes letters of all this along with defense

president eisenhower decided the conventional arms and he relied on a nuclear arsenal and the threat of massive retaliation and when president kennedy took office the soviets could hit america within the sort of the move away from them for nothing nuclear strategy but the power economist for the added billions to the defense budget the total forces to fight fight fight wars president kennedy and later president johnson came to rely heavily on robert mcnamara and his staff to preside over weapons strategy and spending but mrs chief economic analyst tells how the defense secretary's team due to throw our understanding of our job is not just to represent the defense department to the president and to the congress but it's because we're going to vote for the merger others to help him about the fence needs with the only to the country and to ascertain and icann orders really needed for the defense of the country

among them martin we're trying to provide the most fans per dollar and no more defense than needed a doctor and children conceived that other elements influence a decision besides costs there are a lot of factors only cost to get your job done that have to be considered for example at the international implications about what the impact on now i have a ticker care program what made them are out of our armed forces in the long run health and airports for example we get video of attention to design a car that there haven't really rare condition or chips and we should plan for that is we have to consider what we're doing to the american economy and they are trying to produce the weapons we need an open way to the pinnacle of instability on one instruction nothing the white house of course is ultimately a political institution he congressman hours

alone i can convince president didn't include many budget directors we even left their congressmen governors and party can prevail on the executive if not the president himself to keep open antiquated shipyards and the veterans' hospitals and bassist long overdue presidential campaigns can also offset rational decision in the nineteen sixty campaign john kennedy charge there was a missile let me make it clear that i believe that and the only one that and they are the united states and that he had not been aware that they are at the back of the matter are that we are falling behind in our way to grow a lot of our army and marine brought black man on an alien kennedy charge that the eisenhower administration american heart high and the

key heart with little debt and became a good campaign there was a moment in the war and i'm really good at oh really in response the russians played with enormous american hustle like her very small nuclear arsenal the soviets ended up with a force big enough to absorb an attack by us and still strike back and destroy there were echoes of the past of the nineteen sixty eight campaign when president elect next in charge there is a security gap seven years ago when dr marla office about was seven on our favorite terms of missile part deliverable people the day

in terms of that missile capability it practically even as far as research in several areas of concern we bomb behind were broadened the naval power in certain areas of the world and within a matter of three years unless we get a change in our part of the soviet union is going to catch isn't going to pastors and overall are united states and i'd say let's get new leadership that will be devoted to this then let's make sure that in the next term of the next president the republican or democrat that no american president ever go to a conference table in a position of weakness rather than straight three story straight presenter like nixon has indicated that he thinks we should have bigger defense establishment i think is going to be won with vital an exciting areas of combat training president and the challenge the nixon security gap charge that point of hardware on hand and

says we have three to four times as many deliverable more russians we are driven development of the missile which could boost the national order before the real problems like the most of our little toys with greater than originally planned and as he put it more than we recorded a follow up well they made a game hard evidence available many political observers to president johnson oh baby baby an anti ballistic missile system late in nineteen sixty seven we anticipated security gap charge from republicans so it's essentially a political decision is costing the american taxpayer five a defense industry obviously plays a role

in decision making that makes the weapons because some of the biggest firms depend on the pentagon for much of their business this question arises can industry force the government into unnecessary weapons program secretary of the army resort says no and comments on the military industrial relationship we are trying to be increasing like many people many funds have

reputations for one or costs on complex weapons which are two and three times the original that is little the government has done about a pet many contracts for defense work on that without competitive bidding tell firms like general dynamics lockheed general electric mcdonnell douglas and bully work on bid and want to work you from fifty to ninety percent of their business with the pentagon system which the lobbyist bigger defense budgets and many of the officers now retired military brass the trade association which represents the chemical industry well i think the military graduation speech as much of a small insular lives hey david to learn how

can an early on in the military service or miso experience is very valuable industry also those of us who have served in washington have made many contacts great benefit to anyone who has a helmet washington most responsibility for contact with the various parties and the contractor a real valuable to anyone who has to deal with the day we had many dealings with people on the hill the aerospace industry is most dependent on the pentagon eighty five percent of the helicopters made by bell over the military they are he weighs and cobras in vietnam the plant is on the strip between dallas and forth were prosperous twenty mile long defense industry complex former mississippi river just outside of the lawyer's fee avondale shipyards are currently operating around the clock they have orders were twenty seven

destroyer escort from the navy with fifty percent of its were coming from the military have unveiled the biggest single employer in louisiana it has ten thousand employees and is in the midst of a big expansion will it is clearly banking on a continuing buildup of modernization of the world's largest airplane the c five a forgiving troops overseas quickly is built by lockheed which does most of its business with one of the reasons that the sport that lockheed on the state of the fire sunday the inquiry was conducted by senator william proxmire who said getting a crucial witness to testify was not easy so a lot of that for developing nations mission to one witness was a man in the air force and it just under the secretary or fourth were denied the right to make a statement to our committee requested a statement monday he was denied by the main event on your

telephone right to speak out so i think that they got into the work that on the witness stand people crowd on the wi five a focal point of the plaintiffs is notorious example if you're in the situation where lockheed and gen x just over three billion dollars for new orleans they've found they can forgive them for this they come back and they start to find five billion dollar spending entire area they've been analyzing a problem largely on their problems are approximately seventy and non defense many of these defense contractors

work with government equipment injuries last year that shows them something like fifteen billion dollars of government property with private contractors working now you're somebody else's a capital possible with a lot of the moderates prof a month they'll make a perfectly enormous profit on your net worth on your investment so the problem for example on the minuteman prada it was a great big part of the multibillion dollar project was a specified forty three percent profit on that work and this is not at the table omar has called for a full government inquiry into sci fi because he predicts that whatever the final arrangements the government will still guarantee lockheed a profit of ten percent or more the airport in terms of excess costs at one point and the pentagon says it hopes to pass these huge holes

in the ground how much of the material that you see here is the achilles material stuff that was captured in syria has its own associations touch with nature the american ordinance association recently held its fiftieth anniversary celebration of the army's aberdeen proving ground in maryland hundreds of firms which make ammunition weapons and bombs on the right the association which has reportedly aerospace and electronic industry's all the day you never again was devoted to an army display latest in hardware firepower and gas amid the mighty mighty big one all that that i don't have all the mandate to live viet cong from qualcomm and void unable or you know in combination with their riot control control remains remarkably potential and walk in the evacuation of any better now or

vacations back to navigate your father gloria gilbert for bin laden plowed through a tunnel complex the mighty mighty joe neel front of a commercial agricultural backtracked rate at which weighed about twenty five on video of that event riot control that like without the volley of the die or one of them along the capital build the problem an ordinance association officials of the day long demonstration course the only three hundred thousand dollars was useful you know a lot of insight into what exactly the army is trying to do in terms of well not that are particular division of our corporation bills the salt that the weapons we build support her career goals and overall quite interesting to see the gun this fuel the feeling that maybe they're going to get this thing over with

the association's still believes he's from strength and continually urges higher defense budgets issues were discussed and it was all exhibitions including a precision performance by the army's to involve the night's through recently the association we're spending too little on weapons research and development the association's president defined the role this way i think the important in show where the people may have the feeling of playing the same game have been working together something like that mr serious technical they didn't have the army and at airports we rely or security on

a detail that are at npr dot org together in fact all states have prospered because of political ties a nineteen sixty two before lyndon johnson became president texas ranks among the states in defense contracts in the next five years texas climb to second place ness in new york new jersey connecticut and ohio and of a

minefield laid by california we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry about what we're adding those three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the event that that liane you expand on military security a lot more than the net income up all united states corporation of a conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the american league for the whole influence economic political even the bridge is held in everything everything out every august of the federal government we recognize the american neighbors people yet we must not they'll call him it's gravy and they are oil resources them livelihoods are all involved so in

the very picture of artifacts when the guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists i'm robert say we must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberty or democratic process public also helps to a cyber offense judges traditionally most of them mobilize public has wanted more defense vietnam has created the beginnings of a split in the citizenry symbolized by this confrontation a handful of peace marchers showed up at the american legion convention in new orleans last september in the past who lead you along with other veterans and patriotic groups that easily drowned out such

sentiments general william westmoreland talk the region about the attention of demonstrators are getting today the area very you know we are there is big it's b there's been

years by it and again when the legion marches it is to a drumbeat that many americans hear whatever the national jobs about vietnam the legion marches for more defense spending as the order of the day the region two and a half million strong symbolizes the traditional american he was trained in preparedness and it is this due to sixteen thousand posts across the line the key political forces returning from a little league congressman michael grimm mms

residents regularly attend their convention and members have strong feelings about religion and their views on national problems like the friends influence national policy liberation day yeah you're right yeah yeah and while

and they don't make it so and he's the only thing that really bothered me that you know when i am america and quite important he won the primary development the general public is not a mobilize force like the region and a good part of it has a big stake in keeping defense spending hi there are more than four million americans with defense jobs at three and a half million men in uniform and you have about ten percent of the workforce

depends on the pentagon papers now there are at least fifteen million votes and families went to work on the nation's defense congressman naturally want to live there not likely to question those which have worked with industry trade unions to want to keep a contract coming out the afl see i always just as leaders industry for more defense dollars price is becoming a more critical for says pressure for a settlement in vietnam at the harvard business review recently talked about the threat of a military industrial complex carriers of the pentagon that make it difficult to get the facts last summer congressional quarterly and authoritative washington journal charge there was ten billion dollars in fact that the proposed defense budget the pentagon people have to be careful and detailed how he operated i've had two are arranged meetings with can sort of putting artificial night restaurants in washington is gathering of actually been unable to talk

so prolific feared the microphone was my the place like textures are so it's not in his nature and no label to get hard information on social at the office always excellent some worlds what about the ten billion dollars in ways charge seriously enough to issue a point by point the night before my ranking pentagon official who himself asked to remain anonymous said it's very difficult for the average reported to develop stories without becoming a captive of the military this happens much more vietnam closed and there's worry vietnam itself was the focus of the first protests and challenges from radical college students and their professors

should bernie draft card became their simple gradually more groups came into a loose coalition against the war church liberals intellectuals some parts of the business community a climax of sorts was reached in october of nineteen sixty seven when thousands demonstrated it's now generally today some of the questioning or defense spending plans but whether the new coalition will emerge whether size does not typically a year before he was assassinated martin luther king said america's cities would not be the people who draft resistance nba children

rubio continue in one minute this being you and at an

air the beales second season continues know with hard to uphold the fed's decisions are made this in the general public there is still little specific concern is that the fed's decision making processes largely because of public overshadowed by horses you know for this industry on the white house to share the enormous powers of decision within a one hundred billion dollar backlog waiting in the wings after vietnam the fate of the medium they forecast what lies ahead the anti ballistic missile is the biggest and most controversial weapon system in history is being tested on clutching an island in the western pacific

and maybe a more anti ballistic missile to knock down incoming warhead apply the system around fifteen or twenty major american cities for years both presidents kennedy and johnson fought off a military command the system now called sentinel in nineteen sixty seven johnson approved of him or like avian to defend against the possibility of an imminent missile attack it'll cost about five billion dollars and now the military is urging that it be expanded to the billion dollar anti soviet one former defense secretary mcnamara announced the pbm a return he said would have only marginal we also talk about the chances of china we've been flying into a vital part of beautiful but one can

conceive of conditions under which he might miscalculate and we went to reduce such possibilities to remember things as i noted are strategic planning most of all weepy conservative and must take into consideration even the possible or irrational behavior of potential adversaries there are i believe a marginal ground or concluding that i like the climate of the usaid the anthem against the possibility of freedom the system would be relatively inexpensive of such weapons to go on an area within it would cost about five million dollars over varied a five year we have a much higher degree of reliability than a much more massive and complicated system of summit recommended we produce as a defense against the soviet union the navy on climate designed against a possible chinese threats but on a number of other things we provide an additional indication two nations that we intend to

deter china from nuclear blackmail and we've heard the airport to our goal of discouraging asian nation the world other nations are getting nuclear weapons of their own further the chinese oriented atm system would enable us vatican current benefit defensive armaments that lives in a modest cost and finally section eight and that would provide protection against accidental lot by any nation that's nuclear weapons but jackson and a lot lot of the highly improbable they're not inconceivable is the first anti missile missiles will be at camp curtis piled outside boston where national guardsmen come for rifle practice radio moscow which most experts agree with it the army argues that entails there's only so you can lock

down one missile with another critics counter that under nuclear attack conditions at the complex raised on electronic year will not function congressman william bates the ranking republican all my house armed services committee recently visited the sentinels side which is in his district and explained why the national guard can has been chosen one in the new england area and politically around boston early states require a location thats close to the movie that was designed to repair actually that two locations involved in the one missile site this and one of which is in the calm lion of the landfill and the way i feel and reading and massachusetts howard reiter relationship this very familiar with have a few five volunteers some of the raid that some of the most fortified thread out here were like you know beyond those hill is that one of the volga and all of the plans to understand that yeah other in the process of doing it and the

process of land takings were in the process of working up arms with the local community or pesos problem evacuation early on the engineers were here the people didn't understand what they were going to get some commotion there were breaking down a lot those valuable crop and involve children but after a series of meetings in ivf in huntsville alabama they came up and watch him to try to explain this the situation unfolds the military came in the year in the most clandestine manner the manner that they took this land management planning to take fifteen others that sites across the across the country showed joe oh little effect we private citizens have in our country i think our country has changed

passive country in the thirties early forties to a major belligerent i think the question will will kill is certainly year upon us it's not over till it's over kill the deal they will be multiple bombs each one of which were two or four times the devastating power of the bomb that eliminated ninety second marriage it overall now the people pretty well result wood and i i don't think the army is really try to accommodate them what about the controversy about the value of the indian system itself the women on board well you have to a be and so you have this one which the call and one of the sentinels system was designed against missile system like red china my hair has gotten rave about nineteen seventy one and aggression have a more advanced

system against the more sophisticated missile like soviet russia might have i think that's when eric garner the experts can be very effective against the chinese in nineteen seventy one nineteen seventy three so the soviet military they wanted do you know but any such defensive system can rather obviously be defeated by enemy simply sending more rnc warheads or a bombing or have a very capable

and their art events the vessels opposing and this of course was the whole crux of the nuclear action reaction phenomenon were we did employ a heavy atm with them throughout this country that that protect our people the soviets would be strongly motivated to increase their operating capability sort of cancel out party gets an advantage there were the fuel prices than four million forty billion reform and at the end of all spending the relatively at the same point a balance on security scale at which we started automated quite clear that the atm will not work again in the kind of that in the napa valley of the package will not protect now we are in the middle of that they were found really have however that we're on our way to affect the knockoff of the year the billion dollar idea that will not work together in any way to avoid it unemployment and the economy will i

play we used to have that when you lose it and i think about it will have to respond to it without kind of caught up in their own little bit and i would leave the hole arms race it in greek and temple what some scientists well i think that almost any researcher who work on a project on october great enthusiasm for it and i think that many of the kind that would have faith in the atm right now you have a line and we're tracking an innate they can you know that you might be able to protect some american city again that i find that rather remarkably long in the making that i believe that any american recognize that they were quite frankly it became in effect well below the second act

radar for the sentinel will be located in the state far it's not far from the missile site three hundred acres around respond will soon give way to concrete block houses and underground buildings and guidance systems for the anti missile missile all of the area before it began the army held a meeting of the local high school to explain why and how sentinel as expected ah very much with her ladies and gentlemen let me on behalf of the us army and the hearts of the vision welcome you to this meeting and let me express my appreciation for years your coming here tonight we are today starting construction of the first site in a fairly large scale system so that basically is our purpose here tonight to explain to you what the army intend to do in the north

and this a moment i like turn the microphone over to her no rape and i like that and tell you something little more detail about the senses right i think part of my review the proposal says the secretary of the fed's statement last fall as he said we want to deploy that to provide an overall area defend the united states against the initial read chinese intercontinental ballistic missile threat of the early seventies and we would provide a limited protection of our cities against an action a lot of my cd and by any power now let's talk a little bit about what the system is and how it works you do and it's

that or confuse the day the automated the yuan as the incoming it and it would likely be on several hundred miles away on the atmosphere that may apply now at that that and i see the hand that half the spartan or if we let that and we might or specific reasons we may want to discriminate and be sure that this is an incoming warhead because the only may wrote the voices ms bloom jack thinks eventually we might wait and let this is that enter the atmosphere and then

it slowed down a lot more rapidly than good if people have some thought if it comes in the echo effects of the of an incoming warhead a re entry vehicle we would then fire its toll and that's a matter of seconds with india i don't think the anti ballistic missile system at one iota of the security or defense of the united states because it will be quickly overwhelmed by additional authentic there are now by the associate young just as we responded to their limit the defensive system by increasing our often save a capability but for some reason or other weeks they'll have to move beyond the stage where we can work it defense matters irrational uncritical a matter most of those still give our support anything that carries that label

mcgovern and others are pushing for hearings in the new congress the one of sentinels most powerful supporters the new chairman of the senate armed services committee tells why he thinks there was opposition and the last congress for a kid on shaking it has bought us about bay i see beyond the miso the name isn't on certain mailbox and a missile mischel argument that well they'll fact they were not won so that's why it was challenge and then there's a lot of state money but one no all brain was fully explain as we on churches have already life minow the mona well ming in favor of continuing this poll in fact i was convinced that we should make this will have a brief end by the central intelligence agency all another summit but we swung around to various chinese capacity

with their nuclear weapon and i realize that moment that i must reconsider that's why i felt that i should support and i hadn't before i talked with the ipod with jerry wiesner the technical and find that an advisor to that person i talk to the press secretary of defense and i received a statement from james douglass former undersecretary of defense and secretary of the airport in which he said the system promise of the barrel in the defense of this country and it's in its fulfillment would in no way affect our national security now from all the advice i had i reached the conclusion that it's not in the national interest not to go ahead no matter how much pressure is placed on me that's the way i'm going several questions and i think we have to put out a subject and look at the more general question of the anti ballistic missile system because i don't think we should spend much time talking about the scandal i think you're going to go

through the so called they understand no analytic missile system in my judgment falls on almost every point which is great in support of a lonely technological one in terms of its effectiveness the chinese bid in consideration their one noticed others they have a minute to use nuclear weapons on us and secondly the scientists say they're not prepared to do it for your tunic case instance were still hard pressed for money we could very well post poll of this particular project it also very very significantly upon our relationships with russia which i think are most important in the world what i think have an adverse effect on the attempt to bring about some kind of control on the arms i think we need a beat

and says i don't care who says we don't need and i think we do the joint chiefs when we do them aren't persuaded me i think regardless agree with what the soviets or anyone else agree it is a question of missiles landed and again them have been discussed publicly and being debated one can hear the h bomb in a way is this dialogue gets underway i'm no expert judgment is that the manufacturers' pieces missile defense will make the military industrial complex rich and will result in the production of huge piles of junk and will be meaningless in terms of survival our preoccupation with problems of this character reveals a baby growing political bankruptcy of this nation this is the season

of possible change international adversaries do exist and vigilance does have its price the national wounds also exist in america's health to our surprise the drumbeat for more muscle way it's lovely to be that than if the president he liked manson's we will also hear a note struck for arms control and restraint and sadly nothing and run a man from suicide of a determined to carry out the question is what is our determination what our determination in an era when unlimited war will mean that that not only have they include millions of men and women on the verge of a possible genetic problem the millions of generations that follow manager clearly a compound of a folly and wisdom and history is really a mixture of

the two contradictory traits the strains placed on their lives in an era when the consequences of human folly or waxing more more catastrophic an america war and peace the root of man security lies not in his weapon in the end that lives in his in his mind and what the world record is not enumerate oregon what it requires very is a great charge reasonable i think when they're all run a great not only way the administrators are we the people there is evidence that we the people didn't run a race a reasonable is very well in nineteen sixty eight one staggering fact is that there were no public hearings at all on the atm systems in the senate when carried on this senator russell chairman than of the senate armed services committee simply said that no public witness

at the beaver that's all changed now and the new chairman senator status of mississippi is arranging public hearings on the matter early in the session meanwhile the controversy of a slightly different kind of grown up in the city is not only boston butt salt lake city seattle and chicago on what might be called the geographical issue of where the site part of the plot but that senator per se is a relatively minor chord on the larger issue the principal of a beyond is the public actually going to have a say in these hearings coming up or is it going to be just a charade very meaningful of the public to really because they forced all witnesses should be called from the scientific community i think we ought to call as witnesses all of the past scientific advisors to past presidents i think we certainly should call a director of us arms control and the song drawn his body of opinion and every citizen was concerned with this issue should contact their senator in congress they have a format this

eminently fair some of their status and sorrowful are all for lamb but they themselves felt there was an apathy in the country known as to be heard now the country is a rousing that wants to be heard you indicated squarely a negative position against avian you lost in an iv a session of congress and you changed your position of all in terms of that principal of the men are not one iota i was glad that i voted against it and after all senators thomas and senator russell impose themselves a massive deployment are now ten or twelve years the decision of the larger one that year it's not a decision for testified that an expenditure were on the brink of another vietnam expenditure it's fifty billion and then billions a year to maintain and that's what i want us to reassess been brought out in the open now after all the soviet union abandoned their edm system in leningrad report only slow down our system in moscow it's become obsolete

and i think before we even install and operate the first missile site we would have again an obsolete system i think we have to reassess our priorities you indicated that mr forster aware of the war effort there should be called as a witness what we spoke to her years on the subject and after all parties believe ohio well the president doesn't believe we somehow have to bring down the level of our defense spending we have to raise the party of other things in our national budgets now we're spending fifty percent on defense spending in the federal budget twelve percent on all education health and public welfare needs of this country there'd be indian system of fully deployed effects system that will not only in my judgment be obsolete but it means we simply can't spend the money the nation build here at home will be shrinking our money into the ground rather than making life or right here on earth for the american people and for the oppressed people of the world as a powerful

argument that the ad and they shouldn't be expanded because it discourages disarmament talks with the soviet union when what you're did as the body of thought that says now we've gone ahead with a so called princess from the soviets were ready to talk maybe they are i think they are and i think a higher order party should be placed on talked to the soviet union we know one thing you cannot deploy a system like this that cannot before practically detected by satellite reconnaissance so that you can barely any place we would know if they were treating it would be an absolutely i thankful for inspection system i think those talks to get underway as soon as possible the president elect said very firmly in the campaign that he wanted a stronger military defense system against the soviet union given that what is the option for options of the nixon administration island of wood for an atm system it's going to turn our national from three dozen more solid

evidence for most scientists in this country too of those who had anything toward the phone system and it would mean it would take money away from the potential for building nor type of cancer than and other types of the country we were sharing our inventory for instance dramatically by vietnam and cannot replenish though in a word would you tell president nixon that and when you sew testify in the senate i certainly will testify to that i feel certain he is going to reassess the whole fine though no one can speak for the frozen black but you certainly know the needs of the nation and wants to fix the national parties with the latest possible information we can get these hearings will be very important thank you senator present we've gone into some of the towering pressures and the difficulties involved in the fed's decision making but where are the answers to the problems how can we identify the right and obviously nobody fully know what's

surely part of the solution lies in asking more questions when we asked one high pentagon official about the dangers of the military industrial complex with eisenhower for that he didn't have any ready and but after he'd moment over a long time usually thought the fall played primarily neither with the pentagon nor with industry for what he called some neanderthals in congress were more interested in the pork barrel defense contract than in print that was only one man's opinion but it was an opinion based on intimate experience of an expert who knows what goes on behind the scenes when in a billion dollars is that right should do more than ponder the possibility one way would be to interfere with the upcoming senate hearings on atm produce a relevant meaningful that on sunday viola second season returns with the

american performance of jessica tells laboratory and remarks by british director peter brook who like yells second seasons of those public television station wc and live in syracuse on its third anniversary fund raising drive and public television station wu nc tv in chapel hill north carolina on its fortieth anniversary that night special assistance will receive from public television station wgbh in boston it has the beauty va in washington dc june fourteen deals for a special report which follows this broadcast of nineteen thirty pm eastern standard time in lille examines who protects the police a critical look at the federal trade commission could investigate a lawyer while they are dispersed in the old special report follows immediately

this has been another in a continuing series of interconnected produced by the public and it is something that you worry that this is to be a second season yeah next sunday january twelve p b l a second season presents the american premiere performance of jessica tells these polish laboratory theater production acropolis you know acclaimed as the

foremost experimental dramatic growth in europe and never before seen in this country a polish theater will be shown exclusively on vimeo second season next sunday january's world