18. Memorandum From the Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control Matters (Nitze) to Secretary of State Shultz1
SUBJECT
- Getting the MX through Congress
In connection with last Friday’s discussion with Senators Stevens and Nunn,2 I talked with T.K. Jones, who deals with strategic and theater nuclear forces in the Pentagon (DDR&E), about the status of planning for MX basing. I asked him whom in the Pentagon I should talk with in order to coordinate our testimony with that of the Pentagon on the subject. T.K. Jones said that no one short of Secretary Weinberger could deal with the matter since Mr. Weinberger had not yet decided the issue.
The Air Force does not want to spend the money and is against including hardening in the program. Jones tells me that the Air Force estimates 100 to 140 million dollars per super-hardened silo. He says that he and Wade think that number is too high, perhaps by a factor of two. He thinks the Air Force is inflating the figure because it does not wish to spend the money on hardening.
Chu, who handles Program Analyses and Evaluation in the Pentagon, wants to delay deciding the issue in the hopes that the [Page 56] Congress will take the initiative in asking the Pentagon to include hardening in the program. Russ Roark, who handles legislative affairs in the Pentagon, is strongly in favor of including hardening. T.K. Jones is also strongly in favor. Ikle is vacillating between including hardening in the program now or delaying it for four years until there is a possibility of deploying hard-site defense with it. Jim Wade, Acting Head of DDR&E, is uncertain as to which way the decision should go.
I have discussed the above with General Chain. If you have any guidance to give us, we would appreciate it.