‘Compromise’ Defense Budget

The compromise budget agreed upon by the Reagan Administration and Republican senators is not much of a compromise at all, and it is certainly not what the country needs.

Obviously, the request for a 6% after-inflation increase in the defense budget represented an opening bargaining position rather than a request based on true need. Thus, a “compromise” agreement of 3% increase actually provides the Administration with everything it ever dreamed of getting.

The President and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger usually challenge advocates of a leaner defense budget to specify what should be cut. A number of cuts are possible in this area of wildly expanding U.S. military budgets and ambitions.

Billions could be saved by scaling back plans to fight three simultaneous conventional wars, to build an unprecedented 600-ship Navy, and to fight a prolonged nuclear war.

In addition, recalling MX funds could save $15 to 30 billion. By abandoning the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) program as an ill-conceived scheme we could save possibly a trillion dollars. The program is less likely to provide a shield from nuclear weapons than it is to stimulate Soviet development of decoys and anti-SDI weapons as well as bankrupt the United States.

Even with these cuts we would continue effective deterrence with large numbers of submarine-based missiles, old and new strategic bombers, various types of cruise missiles, and the to-be-developed Midgetman intercontinental ballistic missile.

These changes, along with reforms of Pentagon procurement policies, should allow us to maintain more than adequate deterrence, to meet national security needs, and to preserve the strength of our economy.

While the American people will benefit most from a defense budget significantly lower than that contained in the newest compromise, the primary beneficiaries of continued defense splurging will be this nation’s most pampered and affluent special interest group--the defense contractors.

JAMES SALLIS

San Diego