Defense: Until Next Time

"We have learned a lot," said Minnesota Democratic Senator Walter Mondale. "We learned how to work together, and they are going to hear more from us in the future." It sounded like postgame, locker-room bitterness. But the stakes were high—the $20 billion defense-appropriations bill for weapons and research—and last week, Mondale and other Defense Department critics were losers as the bill swept the Senate by an 81-5 vote.

For Mondale and his fellow Pentagon hecklers, the zenith came in August when they fought—and nearly won—the debate against Nixon's ABM system, one...