Quayle Uses Soviet Missile Test to Draw Contrast With Dukakis

Citing an early morning Soviet missile test as evidence of the stakes involved in defense policy, Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle questioned Wednesday whether Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis was capable of negotiating with the Soviets.

Quayle visited the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, deep inside Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, on Wednesday morning and said he had been informed that the Soviet Union had launched an SS-25 mobile intercontinental ballistic missile.

The missile, about which U.S. officials were informed in advance, was a regularly scheduled test.

It was launched from Plesetsk, about 500 miles north of Moscow, at 6:50 a.m. Colorado time, shortly before Quayle arrived at NORAD, and was aimed at the Kamchatka Peninsula, “just across the Bering Sea from Alaska,” Quayle told members of the Denver Rotary Club.

Quayle said that the missile had the “capability of hitting the United States” and noted that Dukakis had opposed modernizing comparable U.S. missiles and flight testing of American missiles.

‘Serious Business’

“Because this is such serious business, I say it more in sorrow than I do in anger: Do we want someone with the governor’s views sitting across the negotiating table from General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev?” Quayle asked.

With that phrasing, Quayle turned back on Dukakis the criticisms the Democrat had directed at him Tuesday as the candidates escalated their fight over each other’s qualification for high office.

After Quayle said flatly on Tuesday that Dukakis was not qualified to run for President because of a dearth of foreign policy and defense experience, the governor in a Chicago speech noted that three vice presidents have assumed the presidency in mid-term and asked:

“Can we stake our future on the hope that he (Quayle) is a match for Mikhail Gorbachev?”

Implies Serious Threat

In his remarks, Quayle omitted mentioning that the launching was a test, implying to his audience that it posed a more serious threat. The SS-25 is the equivalent of a Midgetman-style mobile missile.

In Denver and earlier in Colorado Springs on Wednesday, Quayle continued to batter Dukakis on the issue of defense policy, which the Republicans regard as a major Democratic vulnerability.

Quayle argued for swift enactment of the Strategic Defense Initiative, which he called a “bold vision” and a “moral, superior way of defending America.” He applauded the Reagan Administration’s policy of “peace through strength,” consistently comparing that with Dukakis’ opposition to several weapons systems.

Protesters greeted Quayle at most of his stops. At the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque, he was heckled by more than 50 Dukakis supporters, who chanted, “Go Home, Quayle,” throughout his speech. Quayle shouted into the microphone in response:

“As you listen to this babble over here, you can’t help but think of the Dukakis positions. They have no positions. They’re loud, but they don’t have any ideas. We are the party of ideas.”