‘Huge Cuts in Missiles?’

From the headline, “Huge Cuts in Offensive Missiles? Economic Pressures Could Force the Two Superpowers to Consider a Stable Pattern of Reductions,” I thought Simon Ramo, in the tradition of the late Adm. Hyman Rickover, was writing an apology for the arms race on which he built his career.

The “chief scientist in the development of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile,” as The Times identifies Ramo, states, “The United States and the Soviet Union have each spent around a trillion of today’s dollars . . . for offensive capabilities that neither nation can justify using.”

Does Ramo conclude from this admission that more defense spending doesn’t necessarily mean great security in the Nuclear Age? No reader should be so naive.

Ramo’s conclusion is that defense spending simply needs to be redirected.

“As the scale of the offense is reduced, the cost of defending against it goes down rapidly while giving credibility to the notion that the (Star Wars) defense will perform well,” Ramo argues.

In addition to identifying Ramo as the scientist who brought us the ICBM, I think it would have been appropriate for The Times to have noted that Ramo is the “R” in TRW--one of the largest benefactors of Star Wars defense contracts.

KEVIN CODY

Hermosa Beach