Soviet Star Wars

Why not curtail the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as Star Wars, if that would mean a deal with the Soviet Union to reduce nuclear weapons? The Reagan Administration last week began a strenuous effort to explain why it is reluctant to do so: because the Soviets began missile- defense research long before the U.S. did, and may have a large lead.

In a major speech to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and an interview with TIME, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger stressed that Moscow is "very far along" in missile-defense R. and D. President Reagan, in impromptu comments...

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