Kemp Enters ’88 Race: No Tax Hike, Early ‘Star Wars’

Rep. Jack Kemp, declaring “there are no limits to our future,” today entered the race for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination by pledging to enforce two tenets of the Reagan Administration: no tax increases and an early deployment of the “Star Wars” missile defense.

Opening his campaign, the 51-year-old former professional football quarterback told a morning audience, “The central dilemma of our day is that we lie defenseless against Soviet missiles.”

He said laser technology “that can today eliminate a cancer cell could tomorrow neutralize a Soviet ballistic missile in space.”

Kemp criticized the Democrats and the Reagan Administration State Department for wanting to use the President’s plan for a space-based defense system as an arms-control bargaining chip.

Treaty ‘Violated Since Day One’

“The State Department and the Democratic Party would rather use (the Strategic Defense Initiative) as a bargaining chip and would rather bind this country to a treaty the Soviets have violated since Day One than give America and our allies the defenses we need,” he said.

Kemp, at a later news conference, called on President Reagan to move ahead with deployment of a Star Wars system, telling reporters, “I would hope the President would announce a schedule of deployment for strategic defense.”

In his speech, Kemp also called for support of anti-communist guerrilla movements throughout the world.

Asked if he would rule out the use of American troops, Kemp said: “I don’t think it’s going to require American blood. I think it’s going to require American support.”

Pressed on the issue, the congressman said: “I am talking about now. That’s the only thing I can talk about.”

Kemp joined former Gov. Pete du Pont of Delaware and former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. as formal entries in the Republican race.