When news of the tentative decision leaked last month, it seemed a great victory for the State Department and arms-control advocates. To stay within the missile limits set by the unratified SALT II accord, President Reagan had agreed to dismantle two aging Poseidon submarines when a new Trident sub is launched this month. The complex compromise, reached at a secret National Security Council meeting, seemed to have something for each of the warring factions in the Administration: though it preserved SALT II for the moment, it also accelerated work on the small mobile missile known as the Midgetman and ordered a...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
