Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Senate duo disagrees on missile defense
By Jeffrey A. Roberts
Denver Post Staff Writer
Oct. 22 - It was a gaffe, a strategist for Democrat Tom Strickland claimed, on a par with President Ford's 1976 comment that Eastern Europe wasn't dominated by the Soviet Union.
But Republican Wayne Allard was correct Monday when he said the United States once had an anti-ballistic missile system. He did err, though, in his explanation of why it was dismantled.
Strickland and Allard, the two candidates for Colorado's U.S. Senate seat, argued over the whether an ABM system ever existed after a non-eventful debate on KKTV-Channel 11, in Colorado Springs.
It came as both candidates tried to outline their positions for and against a missile-defense system.
Strickland insisted that "we have never had an ABM system," and the Denver lawyer accused the three-term congressman from Loveland of "making new military history." Strickland consultant Steve Welchert said, "This is kind of like when Gerald Ford said the Soviet Union is not in Poland" during the debate with Jimmy Carter.
However, for about six months in 1975, the $22-billion Safeguard system in Grand Forks, N.D., protected Minuteman silos from ballistic-missile attacks.
"Six months after it was activated, it was turned off," said Stephen Schwartz, director of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
"The Air Force decided it was more expensive to operate than (what it achieved) in defensive benefits," Schwartz said.
Allard was mistaken when he said the ABM program, which he never identified as the Safeguard system, was deactivated after a treaty with the Soviet Union. The ABM treaty with the Soviets was signed in 1972, three years before Safeguard became operational.
Both campaigns later tossed aside the misstatements their candidates had made.
Spokesmen for both campaigns agreed that what voters really need to know is that Strickland and Allard disagree sharply on Republican plans for building a new anti-missile system.
"The key thing is that one candidate supports a missile-defense system and one doesn't," said Dick Wadhams, manager of Allard's campaign. "That is what is at issue here." Allard said he supports spending money on a new ABM system.
But Strickland said the GOP's deployment plan, outlined in the "Contract With America," would violate an existing treaty with Russia and relies on technology that has not been proven to be cost-effective.
"I don't think we walk willy nilly into pouring billions and billions of dollars into untested weapons-defense systems when we're cutting programs that benefit children and senior citizens," Strickland said.
He added that he would, however, favor spending money to study ABM technology.
Strickland also criticized Allard for voting to cut programs benefiting veterans. But Allard said he actually voted to increase veterans' benefits - just not as much as Democrats wanted.
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