At Issue; 66; Nike-X

[test tone] [beep] [theme music] The following program is from NET- NET -- the National Educational Television Network. it's [bird sounds] [bird sounds] Close to the geo- geographic center of the United States, somewhere between Sedalia and Knob Noster Missouri surrounded by some of the richest farmland in the world, local farmers drive

their tractors past this eighty five ton slab of concrete soon there will be one one thousand exactly like it scattered throughout this nation Underneath, poised for action with its nuclear tipped warh- warhead a minuteman missile sits and some 15 miles away buried under a simple wood frame blockhouse, a blastproof underground capsule contains the missile's delivery system. Two officers sitting exactly 11 feet apart can accurately dispatch it to a target 6,000 miles away on less than 30 seconds notice. [electronic beeping] [electrical static]

[engine burn] [engine burn and whine] Somewhere in the world's one hundred forty- 140 million square miles of ocean, 40 Polaris submarines, each armed with 16 nuclear missiles, cruise on secret courses. [rocket sounds?] [rocket sounds?] [rocket sounds?] [rocket sounds?] The Minuteman and the Polaris missile, coupled with Sachs? hydrogen bomb carrying B50-

B-52 comprise the background of this country's deterrent force [rocket sounds?] The dict- dictionary defines the word deter as 'to turn aside or discourage through fear, hence to prevent some action by fear of consequences.' The strategy of deterrence has been basically simple: since there was no known defense against nuclear attack, the two major powers kept matching destructive forces so neither would win an atomic exchange. [rocket sounds?] But now a- technological breakthrough could radically altered this balance of terror For more than a decade ways have been sought to perfect an active defense against incoming m- missiles. The United States Army now claims that the technical problems have been solved. Known as the Nike-X,

this anti-missile system consists of a computerized radar tracking device which scans the skies at electronic speeds and which guides to their targets two nuclear armed missiles and long range intercept Nike Zeus, and the new instant-firing Sprint. [rocket sounds?] The army's chief of research and development General Austin Det- Detz? The Nike-X system as is now being designed will in f- fact perform as our studies have predicted. It could provide the l- the level of effectiveness against ballistic missile attack that was described by Mr. McNamara in hi- his recent posture statement. No invention is required in order to complete dev- development of the system. Pressure is now is moun- mounting to produce and deployed the Nike-X, which would encircle our citys, cost upwards of of twenty billion dollars and require a substantial shelter-building program. Intel-

Intelligence reports allege the Soviets may deploy such a system soon. For the U.S., a difficult choice is in the making. Senator Henry Jackson of the armed services committee: Will it- Will it save lives, will it deter a general thermonuclear war? i think ah- one has to ah- say that ah- that thi- this is a highly problematical thing. THis is why we've not been able- been able to come to a proper resolution in a timely way. We ah- would certainly like to have a device that could stop practically all all incoming missiles to save the civilian population of our country. and if we had this kind of capability it would certainly ah- tell the- adversary, "Look, there's no point in your trying to start a general war, because you're not going to win." Former presidential science advisor, Jerome Wiessner?: Well, my own judgment, and it's based so on experience to date, is that offensive

power is so great nowadays given the thermonuclear weapons and it takes so few of these weapons to do the kind of damage that we certainly don't want to accept, that the defense is at a tremendous disadvantage, and will always be both in costs and in effectiveness. It's a matter of judgment, and I'm giving you my personal opinion which is I think that based on as much exp- experience as anyone in the business of working on defensive systems has had. [mechanical sounds] What kind of public attitudes might the Nike-X create? And how much is all this going to cost? Whether you weaken your own society by preparing for wars to the extent that many things your own society aren't done. I think possibly the best thing would be ah we call for political solutions rather than military solutions. If we're going to point missiles out they're going to point missiles in and they're going to keep throwing them back and forth and we're all going to get killed the National

Educational Television Network presents At Issue, a monthly commentary on people, events and ideas. This month, At Issue The Nike-X. [beeping] A report on the proposed new anti-ballistic missile defense system an- and the controversy the production and emplacement of such a system would create. [beeping] [rocket sounds] [rocket sounds] When the Soviets launched Sputnik in October of ninet- Nineteen fifty-seven. The age of the intercontinental ballistic missile began. Clearly the rocket which lifted Sputnik into orbit could also deliver a nuclear warhead to any target on earth [rocket sounds] For the United States, this- this event marked the end of its relative safety from the possibility of nuclear attack.

While previously, our bombers and medium-range missiles were primarily intended to protect Europe, we now had to protect ourselves. For Europeans, our nuclear guarantee had been believable because the United States itself was fairly immune from atomic retaliation. [rocket sounds] As a deterre- deterrent, early ICBMs left something to be desired. They were above ground, slow firing and liquid fueled. This made them vulnerable to attack. They- They could be destroyed before ever getting off the ground. [rocket sounds] Strategists realized an all-out nuclear war could now be won, in theory at least. A well-timed surprise attack could knock out the opponent's planes and missiles before he had a chance to use them. Then the threat of a second strike aimed at his cities could assure victory. [indistinct sounds]

Even before President Kennedy took office in 1961, he had become aware of some serious flaws in our defense posture. There were two weaknesses. First, we were open to a possible nuclear first strike, and second, our conventional strength was so inadequate that in limited local wars our choice of response would be extremely inflexible. [rocket sounds] The- greater our variety weapons Kennedy said, the more political choices we can ma- make in any given situation. Under the leadership of Secretary McNamara, our conventional forces were quickly rebuilt. By 1964, protected against anything but a direct hit, most of our missile force was safe. Solid fueled Minuteman missiles thus hardened in underground silos were prac-

practically invulnerable. Much in the same manner that the Polaris submarine is protected by its mobility deep underwater. This is an enormously important change that can can make us be more relaxed about a great number of things, including, for example, limited war, that is when we get involved in the minor conflict, we don't have to worry so desperately about it escalating into a major one as we once did. For example, six years ago the problem was one of worrying about whether you shouldn't get started and get off the ground while the getting was good or else or else you might not have your force left. Well, we don't have to worry about that anymore. and i think this can give ah- our president in a period of crisis like the Cuban cri- crisis, or like the present crisis in Vietnam -- it can give him a good deal more latitude of choice to deal, more time to make up his mind what he wants to do, and less fear about the consequences of what he may be doing. [rocket sounds]

[rocket sounds] [rocket sounds] Once missiles were invulnerable, the- the incentive for surprise attack practically vanished. The balance of deterrence reached a new, far more stable plateau. [street sounds] but now city became the prime- prime targets for hostages. Holding a city hostage in the nuclear age is is comparable to what is known in westerns as the Mexican standoff -- two gun fighters, their weapons drawn, know that neither one can fire without getting sh- shot by the other. Barring suicidal madness, neither will fire. In the real world of power politics, when Kennedy and Khrushchev faced each other during the Cuban missile crisis, neither side fired. The world went to the brink, but the confrontation was settled directly by the two superpowers. Now, other countries, the onlookers during the cr-

crisis, became anxious. [indistinct speaking in French].General de Gaulle complained that he had been informed but not consulted. He then asked, would the United States really risk the destruction of one of its own cities to guarantee the safety of an allied city. Would we, in short, trade Pittsburgh for Lyon? General de Gaulle's solution: his own nuclear force. But what if you could defend your cities against an incoming ICBM, a feat not unlike hitting a bullet with a bullet. Could it not only save many lives, but also make our nuclear guarantee more convincing to our allies. More than seven years of research and over two billion dollars have been spent by the United States on the development of an effective anti-balli- anti-ballistic missile defense. [indistinct sounds] How would it work in the event of a nuclear attack?

In theory, our cities would be surrounded by a belt of Nike-X installations. Day and night, the Nike's computerized radar scans the skies. Suddenly a- suspicious cloud is detected high in space, rapidly approaching the city. Concealed in this cloud, decoys in the shape of balloons, jacks, or pellets, shield shield the enemy's missiles [rocket sounds]. To further confuse the defense, the missiles change course in mid-flight.But the Nike's radar makes an instant evaluation and promptly launches the long range Zeuses for high-altitude intercept [rocket sounds] [explosions] [rocket sounds] Now the enemy explodes one of its own ICBMs, creating a nuclear radar screen which allows a missile to slip through intact. [rocket sounds] Its warheads separates on re-entry and starts broadcasting a radar jamming signal. The warhead

now splits in two. The Nike fires its first lightning-fast Sprint [explosion] which destroys one of the warheads. Another Sprint follows, and intercepts right above the city. Now, to circumvent Nike-X, an enem- enemy nuclear ground burst, 50 miles upwind from the city, creates fallout from which the population must be protected. [Sirens] Whether or not to produce and deploy such a system with an estimated cost over twenty billion dollars raises many complex interrelated questions. For one, will it work? President Kennedy decided against deploying an earlier system, the Nike Zeus. the Zeus's main shortcoming was its inability to tell an incoming ICB-

ICBM from an orbiting ash can. But what of the Nike-X? The U.S. Army's Chief of Research and Development, General Austin Dietz: The army doesn't claim that a perfect defense is achievable against a massive Soviet attack. We do insist that the penalties they must pay to have a high probability of defeating the Nike-X system would be severe.The the fact is that an enemy would have to commit a significant frac- fraction of his missile payload in order to penetrate the Nike-X Nike-X defense. [rocket sounds] Still an integral component of the Nike-X system, the Ni- Nike Zeus first intercepted a ballistic missile in flight as far back as nineteen sixty 1962. A metal fragment from the collision is is kept as a souvenir by former army chief of research and development General Arthur

Trudeau, now president of the Gulf Research Corporation. [Trudeau] So we're now approaching six year years of advanced development on this missile and, for my money, it's time to produce it and deploy it and I think we need it I also think there seems to be a philosophy to delay production just as long as possible, possibly due to this disarmament aspect that is uppermost in some people's minds and possibly because they consider the things we have are sufficient unto our needs at this time. Both of these can be dangerous. I would rather see Zeus, Sprint, or the Nike-X system, if you want to call it that, be on-station three years too early or five years too early or I'm hoping nothing whatever happened to it than to be five minutes too late. At the University of California's new San Diego extension, the former director of the Defense Department's Research and Development Office, Dr. Herbert York, wonders how the Nike-X would work in a real

situation rather than during a test. [York] Let us say, at a test ground where the missiles were fired by ourselves against our own defenses ah- the ah- the question of whether we- we could ever have one that would work under real conditions of surprise ah- using equipment that had never been fired in a real situation until that last second which it had to work is really a much different question though even then even in the case of a simple offense, to say nothing of how things would work out if the defense were specifically designed for penetration. If the offense was designed spec- specifically for penetration of the defense. It is our considered judgment, after some years of study, that there is no cheap and easy way to defeat the Nike-X system. At Princeton, where with fellow mathematician

John Von Neumann, he pioneered in the field of cybernetics and the theory of games, Dr.- Dr. Oscar Morgenstern questions the dependability of the system. [Morgenstern] Let's assume it would work, I mean then I think the main problem would be, apart from the great economic effort which is involved in this tremendous expense but i would minimize that because if it were really absolutely successful, then- then surely the country could afford to put up any such defensive system but the- the real problem seem- seems to me to be an organizational one, because the whole thing would only make sense if it is at any moment always at the possible pitch of needed performance and i cannot see how one can organize a complicated thing of this kind in this manner so that it was always at a moment's notice be able to rise to the up- optimum and maximum of what is required of it. If nothing happens for

many years as we hope it wouldn't be, it would be a problem to keep the thing at this high-level pitch. [Narrator] Now, Dean of sciences at MIT President Kennedy's science advisor, Dr. Jerome Wiesner, was closely involved in decisions of this nature. He advised the president not only on the potential performance of weapons systems, but also on their possible political side effects. For instance, if an anti-ballistic missile system were deployed, would it escalate the arms race? Would the Russians responded by building an ABM of their own, or were they increased their missile striking force to overwhelm our defenses? The late president once inscribed a photograph to Dr. Wiesner with "To Jerry, who makes the complex simple." Dr. Wiesner recently headed an arms control panel of prominent citizens. One of the recommendations: a three year moratorium on the Nike-X system.

[Speaker] Well, we believe that deployment of such a system by the United States and by the Soviet Union would accelerate the arms race which at the moment is relatively stable and quiet and if one--either one of us--were to begin large scale deployment of an anti missile system, the minimum that it would do would cause the other side to have to do that and very likely, although not certainly would cause rather considerable acceleration in the purchasing and deployment of offensive weapons as well and in addition, the anti-ballistic missile system requires with it a very substantial civil defense program, shelter program, to be effective. Sociologist Amitai Etzioni, here at Stanford University's Institute for Behavioral Sciences, questions the real nature of such a defensive system [Amitai Etzioni] Anti-missile -missile- looks sometimes as if it is a defensive weapon. Actually it is,

and i'm guessing that that is sometimes difficult to understand as the gauge the distinctions between offensive and defensive and learn but in this particular case that has sown the illinois you know with elections in foreign invested in the citizens united the city's <unk> this is a looming with no position on the defensive measure passes them on a market that passed actually the really very suspicious when the maintenance that in the uninitiated amaral condition they're asking them are considering attacking us first inning rally the citizens out in order to protect them while they sing her a very very modest inflation the the problem over massive anti missile system the other side and the preparation for office park and isn't going to remind us of the

united states has consistently if you eat and then the difference in the evidence which would make them aside suspect that this is one element that the r maine all of the men had that first nuclear weapon that aside that american lawyer about a teenager michael as if you are engaging in a big way the decision must be reached on the future status of the nineties in the coming months pressure will build for a decision opponents feel that the system is ready and further delay may be costly and dangerous this shearer secretary mcnamara while requesting the usual funds for further research and development also warned of the dangers of a potential chinese nuclear threat the joint chiefs of staff have recommended as a start building a so

called light anti missile defense system one that would cost in the neighborhood of ten billion dollars such a system in their view could cope successfully with unsophisticated missile attacks the kind the chinese might be a launch in five to ten years author bomber on the department of defense i think we in the soviet union understand that nuclear war cannot be an instrument of policy dean rusk has recently said that we have understood this we hope the soviet union and so on the one hand there seems to be somewhat the decrease of tension between moscow and washington on the other hand we find a very aggressive belligerent chinese power who has recently acquired some very modest nuclear capability and we certainly cannot in any way limit the ability of this nation to defend itself

against a chinese rep and so i think that's why the indian mission becomes extremely important that on the one hand we don't wish to excavate our relations with moscow on the other hand we actually must protect yourself against the chinese they would be irresponsible as in recent months while in his silver bells nuclear superpowers now fully understand the implications of nuclear warfare chinese leaders in their public utterances continue to minimize the importance of nuclear weapons a maoist at that china could afford to lose four hundred million people and still emerged victorious from a nuclear war we believe in

the nuclear age is leading terrorists the chinese sometimes by monday's weather is a private cottage as well as a lot of the insane russia's been built on private was the same point at the various reasons as the soviet threat has tended to decrease in watery places where americans in the same way the result is a really full scale campaign against the chinese one runway which is almost completely on shared by the volatility in terms of the estimates of their aggression out of the line here jacki is intensely and saw nevertheless it's clear that many as arab nations was probably the chinese and the indians world for viewers guarantees a more credible more reliable really the last us from chinese retaliation in other words the asians may resume raised the same problem that us credibility in danger of going as raising your living as they've been willing to

risk we're actually trade last night as the tokyo such as cocoa calcutta every little protect the city's of chinese attacked weekend and was a potato here in calcutta were reliably because if the chinese firm protect the city's weakened and very quietly tried to retaliate against china without fearing chinese the generation of major us cities is this one of the major arguments about the saliva hormone level of the video but even small scale deployment of the atm might cause a large scale political uproar that is when the defendant saying eleven cities were chosen for defense which ones would be given priority and on what basis how would the citizens of a chosen city feel those of an un chosen city should solutions be found for these problems there would still remain the question of civil defense additional

fallout shelters would have to be built that would be needed to protect people from the effects of a nearby nuclear explosion in the event of an all out nuclear war the defense department estimates that an atm system combined with a shoulder problem could save over eighty million was the expenditure according to general trudeau would be fully justified the difference in having this system is the difference between about a hundred and forty and seventy million live well if you can save seventy million live for twenty five billion ours which is threatened fifty dollars per person and it should be done i can share my life worth at least that much it's apple watch on the program requires first of all very major expenditure secondly it requires i believe the kind of excitement of a fear inducing of fear in the population they generate a willingness to have these great changes in marin general society where we live that

you have to our current situation which is very much worse than it really is in the danger which is more in the greater than it is and this in itself i think helps make or more likely that the minute people are concerned about this as you recall during the kennedy administration we begin to the conclusion that small on the shoulder preparation with less desirable in that in fact the administration would be a responsible it didn't take those quiet modest steps that would get some form of protection for the population in event of a nuclear war but even to get acceptance of that required a degree of public relations and scare mongering than one had anticipated and the consequences you recorded begun the country which was really very upsetting and very frightening and which owen president saw

what was the story of the consequences were really backed away from the paintings eventually more extensive shuttle program would have to go hand in hand with an iq text and the government would have to create a climate for civil defense it would therefore have to undertake a massive education program to change such attitudes as these i think it's ridiculous isn't it can't be taken out anything less they don't know what i'd do anything whether you're sitting in your desk next to the window or standing in the elevator shaft it would be of any great significance if the bomb were dropped in this area which generates twenty five miles i assume it was to show that within the city like new york is not much chance the person to vaudeville as an attack or something so much time running in case

of an emergency yeah going to be thinking of all the way that people that i don't think you can and i think you know it was a guerilla tactic you would know what to do i'm going to fight like to blame that really feel a certain amount of protection death knowing that we can go from fight i mean they're taking cover might be just some sort of discipline would otherwise it really would know what what would happen if it was going to be any protection from the twenty second floor here but if the public feels a sense of futility about civil offense some major private corporations have given serious thought to the problem the new york telephone company for instance built this windowless twenty one story office building in the heart of manhattan is equipped with its own generators and while certainly not blast proof nothing above ground is it would make an excellent fallout shelter other large companies like shell oil

manufacturers trust and standard oil have come up with more elaborate solutions aol russell security administrator stammer in nineteen sixty three we took a study to see whether we were up to date and determined that the underground facility for emergency operating would be more in keeping with present circumstances and after a survey we developed our facility would use iron mountain is located one hundred twenty five miles from new york city driving time two and a half hours mr russell describes standard oil facilities i grabbed gear is said that a facility should have a possibility of lull fallout affects articulate adequate chilling from any fallout affection would play that are not meet state requirements and we do not refer to listen to fallout shelter but as an emergency operation

center and i'd say that it has its own independent inside power water and other facilities we would propose to follow what's referred to as a death camp in advance notice is where we would take a few people on an early warning a few more than that this morning and we would only manners and an appropriate warning period i'm reliably informed that there was a def con notices during the cuban prices and i would say that this is a type of situation i think would cause us to take a hard look at putting at least our preliminary manning we believe that to be realistic we have to keep them stuck with the government and this is a way where informed they are going to manage their counterparts to our emergency center we have approximately ninety thousand square feet and iron man and this provides us an opportunity our capability for emergency

offering users a staff of approximately sixty of our operating personnel on our management along with necessary all the staff with their families and come on the ground and to help the company carry out their coronation and worked for emergencies we think maybe we're one of the few one of the first to include family members of those who have gone after a great deal of thought to assure ourselves of having responsive people i could do the job this provides sleeping accommodations for these people to the extent possible and family units have small bedrooms we have a few drama gloria is for those who were there alone we have a capability for free to openly keeping and inefficient state during his period we have food for two hundred people for thirty days which we believe is more than the fear of time we would need to be on the ground actually our friends and government will the office of movie fans the office of emergency planning and other agencies

have indicated probably fourteen to fifteen days would be a maximum that we would have a fallout hazard severe enough to keep a sonogram communications obviously as wild once that we have the greatest need four votes to be responsive to government requirements during that period we must be able to communicate we're continually trying to improve our communications capabilities with our far flung worldwide organization should the government ever proceed with a nike x program it would have to convince the public not private corporations the need for shelters are thinking that goes into a decision like nike texas highly complex thirty of its full

implications often starts in the so called think factories third rand corporation in santa monica california was one of the first such institutions pretty to top secret information the rand corporation was created and supported by government contracts and it's purely advisory capacity it remains independent in its thinking here economists scientists social scientists engineers study problems of national defense in a semi academic atmosphere the rand corporation is often referred to as a breeding ground for the defense department many of its top alumni became whiz kids under secretary mcnamara applying the technique of so

called systems analysis two economists and a mathematician discuss the nike x project way they evaluate secretary mcnamara as recent estimate on how many laws the system might say so do we spend fifteen billion dollars under some circumstances more power these go from one hundred and twenty two million to about sixty million books very impressive if you say that you save sixty million lives and i think that if you look at it in terms of that still sixty million and it's also that doesn't account for possible soviet response of increasing the size of their their offensive force reacting so with

them so you get that oh if we spend twenty billion on the defense this year the soviets were outspent twenty billion dollars or maybe much less on the offensive weapons they may raise the more valued at sixty right back up two hundred and twenty two sounds like utah classical injuries and we spend twenty billion dollars in response and spends twenty billion dollars to the rand corporation was spawned by the nuclear age never before had strategy involving the most frightful weapons been discussed in the context of war is which do not occur the strategic concept developed in the age of the h bomb and the mussel are is new is the buildings housing the air force academy and the right

to participate the patient years ago strategy was looked upon as generalship tricks of war about roses of the battlefield unless perhaps by the work of napoleon and debate strategy i think if we define it properly represent manipulation of national resources not in the arena of international security against lebron tens are presented against so this involves ten thousand times more complex factors than the only an evergreen government also involves dealing with the future even more than with the president that necessitates a great emphasis upon the long range

planning function colonel wesley polls are as chairman of the department of political science at the academy he is currently completing a book on strategy in the nuclear age cadets here are given a course on the subject which is based on the game developed by the rand corporation we are about to take part in this game is you know which is an integral part in your core spirit the air force academy in international relations that policy of the purpose of this game this exercise is to imitate the long range planning process as you might encounter it in the office of the secretary of defense or perhaps in the kremlin peaking or some other future capital of the world which would make this kind of military decision now the basic structure of the game is that each team is given a budget and national budget and your task is to allocate this budget among various strategic programs available to you

such is manned bombers interceptor missiles strike missiles active defense as passive defenses how you you can even purchase intelligence with certain risks that it is not accurate in this game by using part your budget you may invest in research development programs with varying probabilities of being successful now when you are so making these program decisions you should be acting in accordance with your own team strategic concept your appraisal of the ten year were fifteen year strategic posture that might be for example in terms of targeting planning for color force or for cover value what sometimes is called a city hostage is a strategy now i would appoint out i would stress that this is only a game is only a simulation and as such it is at best a very poor representation of the real world let's say of the department of defense and what we're trying to accomplish here is only an

educational function it on saturday we were having our first class leading a second book you're right you would give them the information between blasting this first good intelligence information on the rick teams deployment of their weapons system i heard you had a rather good care of force second strike strategy developed and i'd like to know i was within the limits of your twenty seven billion dollars budget for the next three years what changes you think you should make any strategy and one which already wells are based on the most recent intelligence reports we received over a team they get concerns me most is effective in place a large number was the muscles we estimate about a new system here and a much more dangerous for stability then we had at the

beginning of his period would be quite well there are i see two strategies here first of all the first one is weekend only increase our missile force deployed at harvard and then of course we could set up the anti missile system and emphasize protection policies this experience with the system it a serious one ocean land and void because our of our mission in this war is to protect our people that were hurtful we're really here to protect the people of this country and if we don't if it wasn't for bombers the missiles now that they are there and we are really endangering our vehicle we have to do something to protect let's think about that first of all we have a budget which is nearly equal are just twenty seven million users

twenty five what we're going to do here is that we were anti missile system were just saturated they're just going to increase the number of vessels in their arsenal is going to lead to an arms race in the budget back close we can't possibly get anywhere from an arms race with what they have as far as the defense of their city's trees something to protect their people injured then they have to consider when they got there but they have to consider population yes it will do this will increase the defenses they put out their seeds and just collapse to our borders and destabilize questions and if we can pay our suv and controlling increases so is that there as he didn't believe in our city and cites another population centers within this thing weighs on this threat is to publish if we do in case anti missile systems around their cities and they're going to

have a huge ego exaggeration cause it really take three more missiles than we have even students at city for centuries we can more effectively barnard cb insights into it and then we can set up this system for says the saturation they contain imagery awful because you're assuming an awful lot the whole purpose of the war would be over reduce our population or second stryker nation we were going to wait for them to strike first and we lose all the population of a target to target population as devout muslims they want we have to fight a war with what we have one reason we had to fight or anything anymore anyway we increase defense assistance meant thinking as decoys more important systems and other malaysia's to center cities and if they didn't use these methods and

pressed grey numbers fallen also distort population i say we should give our studios to take away some of the population we're hearing about that groundbreaking around anyway if we if we get out before they get there will fall into the population centers with anti missile defenses in the population centers were destroyed and here is try to destroy the air has its consequences to first of all for every one of the anti missile missile launch nuclear warheads we have to assume a certain percentage of bala is an inherent danger system a surprise invasion could say that's the problem i mean speaking just to be killed it's glorifying hitler worship is this going to affect any

effectiveness of us dread worshipper and secondly the destruction of communities that were both against us uses them against your population will level of the bible's account is a war starts that one guy gets because if mr starks you've lost the game this has been the refrain of the atomic age all decisions concerning weapons in the nuclear age are eventually made in washington in the pentagon which proposes and in the congress which appropriates and then in the white house where a final decision is made on capitol hill we asked senator henry jackson of the armed services committee what the reaction of the congress would be at the defense department to ask for funds to produce and deploy and the nikkei x system now there will be those who disapprove

would not favor of a wooden bit nicer maybe a unanimous for those would be the case of say often says i don't think there's any doubt that congress will approve one of the influences that are exerted by pressure groups that have a vested interest in a program like the nightly x a man who saw these pressures from the inside president kennedy's science advisor joe mr that pressure has come right of sources of course the military who are paid to try to try to provide the most effective possible with funds for the country come in and make their recommendations and i think rightly so there's a great deal of congressional pressure stems from a variety of sources people who are interested in having like the security economic that the congress had a view of the

political people either warped or industry itself in the case of nike's lose with a great view the public pressure that in various ways trade magazines from the associations of people who had an interest in it in the industry did something that i think that's really not very proper there was very expensive advertising campaign in the public press and magazines and newspapers advocating support pressure on the president wasn't quite that rat race and but this was the effect of the decision is american people many of the manufacturers have large areas and then they end up in magazines advocating particular system so that there's a great deal of this kind i don't think it has a great view president kennedy of anything that made him more curious if interested in precise moral issues

were on it was such a tremendous the pressure on him to make the decision making more thoughtful i think about the dixie isn't that the same kinds of things are likely to happen with nike exeter are happening i don't really know i think there's a different period in the history of the things first was suspected anything that pressure back our people be a little more careful also i don't believe the defense department now allows people in charge that kind of advertising against the fence country had been more careful with their money but i would imagine that goes one after a certain amount of that state it's probably not a bad thing that makes people conscious of the fact that there's a very important decision in the water can people in defense analysis work become too passionate about their occupation dr bjork a former director of research and development at the department of defense

what happens is that people live in this world come to believe that it is you know that the whole world and in extreme form i've come to believe that the whole purpose of the united states is to maintain a deterrent that that that's the purpose of life rather than merely one aspect of what our national life unfortunately has and that began in the most extreme situations they develop a messiah complex about about their work they use phrases like you know how when you put out a new book the budget ahead of survival how can you put a price on survival in the nuclear age many invasion thinking about the unthinkable as something more men and even callous we asked chairman john why there are many reasons why people who object to these kind of studies i were jazz at the most important is fear of self fulfilling prophecy and this could

be an adamant opposition democrats will fall that if one person's hassle suspicious somebody does it react the same way the first person billed as a tabletop and bass and catalogers curtis white but actually most of the time so for the proposition is not an illegal proposition it's a magical proposition is very primitive tribes we narrow sophisticate society we find many women were afraid to be examined the cassava for afghans many americans to buy insurance through a sign the paper they're going to do all that there is a sense that you have to use the magical part the pope at the beginning of the atomic age only a handful of men were involved in unlocking the secret of the bomb today enormous engineering and scientific talent is employed to help assure that the bomb is never used john ruple

a former assistant secretary of defense science is embarrassed by war scientists most scientists didn't become scientists to invent ways to kill people or to destroy think engineers really many times feel embarrassed or anything the idea has sunk it that one wants to be a builder and not a charity and then we've used for war all of our genius to build a genius to organize the director of mobilizing harness the resources of our whole society and i think one finds at least i had a disturbing from time to time to think that you can see are scientific minds are engineering skills are

organizational genius our system organizing industry and government alternative the systematic destruction of the people if you believe in the brotherhood of land then you don't believe in destroying people anywhere among them and the united states can any nation be completely invulnerable to nuclear attack even the strongest advocates of the nike access to agree that one hundred percent protection is not possible the questions we must as it is how much protection do we need how much can we afford will production and deployment escalate the arms race how much of a shoulder program will the american public accept only for continuing research and development

but last month the senate armed services committee voted additional funds for the purchase of some nike x components would this initial commitment to a final decision on it next is drawing closer the prison to provide any case the plan to put the

peak dickens is used only at the national Educational Television Network.