Chat with Chic, November 1, 1985

Chat with Chic A Report from Washington November 1, 1985 By U.S. Senator Chic Hecht Within a few weeks, the President of the United States will be traveling to Geneva for a meeting with the USSR's Gorbachev, presumably to bring about a more amicable relationship between the two major super-powers . There are many who believe, and hope, that such a meeting will lay groundwork for a future free from the threat of super-power conflict. But, as a colleague of mine said recently on the Senate floor, "Wishing will not make it so. Optimism must be tempered by a considerable amount of hard-headed realism." Basically, what the Soviets want us to do ? and demand probably will be made in Geneva ? is to abandon our Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program, despite the fact that intelligence reveals that the Russians have been working on a similar program for the past 15 years! Conveniently, for them, they mention nothing about abandoning their "star wars" plan. A recent poll taken in America revealed that 90 percent of all Americans want a defense against nuclear missiles such as the President proposes and SDI would provide; and 60 percent are not even aware that they are undefended today. Chat with Chic, page 2 Instead of terrorizing the world with the threat of nuclear weapons and hoping somehow to get peace and deterrence out of that, what we need to do is to render any nuclear attack against the United States futile and ineffective. And what's wrong with that? Defense and national security cannot be obtained by a signature on any piece of paper, nor through a policy of revenge, menace and threat. National security, rather, is created when a government undertakes to defend its people; to make aggression by a hostile power improbable. The Soviets say we are building SDI in order to threaten their homeland. But history proves otherwise. If we had wanted to "threaten their homeland" we could have done it quite easily during the late 1940s and 50s when the U.S. possessed absolute superiority and total monopoly on nuclear weapons. But instead of showering Russia with nuclear missiles, we sent our money, food and hearts to rebuild, not only Russia, but most of the world shattered by the horrors of World War II. The Russians say they are willing to give up 50' percent of their missile force in exchange for 50 percent of our missile force PLUS, and this is a big plus, America's SDI program. Yet they make absolutely no mention of their SDI program of the past 15 years. So, clearly, they intend in Geneva to ask us to make a greater sacrifice in any arms agreement than they them-selves are willing to make. Everyone, everywhere, is hopeful that something constructive can emerge from the impending high-level Geneva talks. We must be realistic. I have every confidence that America will be represented well in Geneva and that we can rest assured that President Reagan will not "give away the store" when it comes to the defense of our great country. And that is a very good feeling.