700 Scientists Call for End to Research on ‘Star Wars’

A group of more than 700 scientists, including 54 Nobel laureates, today called on both the United States and the Soviet Union to abandon efforts to build “Star Wars” nuclear missile defense systems.

The appeal kicked off a campaign by the Union of Concerned Scientists against President Reagan’s proposed five-year, $26-billion research and development effort, the Strategic Defense Initiative, which seeks to build a space-based shield to protect U.S. nuclear weapons.

At a news conference, Dr. Henry Kendall, chairman of the group, and Dr. Richard Garwin of the T. J. Watson Research Center of IBM Corp. called the “Star Wars” proposal “a naive and militarily foolhardy program.”

“It is fantasy to think ‘Star Wars’ will protect us,” Garwin said. “And it will be a tragedy to start placing weapons into orbit.”

“There is not a shred of scientific evidence that it can be effective,” he added. “And unlike the ‘Star Wars’ movie, if the weapons don’t work, the Pentagon can’t just shoot the scene again.”

Kendall said the group’s appeal was a response to Reagan’s 1983 call for the scientific community to create a space-based defense system against Soviet missiles.

“Our response is that technology offers no shield--no shield--that cannot be penetrated by offensive nuclear weapons in the hands of a determined enemy,” he said. “Science is not magic, and there is no feasible way to take the ‘Star Wars’ idea from the Hollywood screen and mold it into a successful national defense.”

In the appeal, signed by more than 700 members of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists urged the United States and the Soviet Union to “negotiate a total ban on the testing and deployment of weapons in space.”

“To create a constructive environment for the negotiations, both nations should join a moratorium on further tests of anti-satellite weapons,” it said.