‘Dealing With a Deadlock’

I write this letter as one of the many members of the scientific community who seriously question the concept and basic workability of the Star Wars project--which now had led to the failure of the talks in Iceland.

It seems to me that it is tragic misjudgment on the part of the President to decide to expand his program from the laboratory to the space-test phase rather than to accept the substantial reduction of nuclear ams as offered by the Soviet leader.

The illusionary belief that the Star Wars system will protect us from a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union has been emphasized by Dr. Robert W. Bowman in his book “Star Wars: Defense or Death Star?”. (Dr. Bowman is president of the Institute for Space and Security Studies and a former director, in 1978, of what now is the U.S. Air Force Space Division). In his book, he states “Perhaps the most insidious hoax ever perpetrated on the American people is the one attempting to sell ‘Star Wars’ as an aid to arms control.”

As an alternative to arms in space, Bowman proposes a joint U.S.-Soviet space program, stating that “Joint missions in space on behalf of mankind hold out a real hope of breaking the cycle of fear and mistrust, leading the world out from under the threat of destruction.”

WILLIAM S. HALSTEAD

Woodland Hills