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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


March 1997 United States Special Weapons News



  • Pursuit of the Shield The U.S. Quest for Limited Ballistic Missile Defense By K. Scott McMahon This study compares and contrasts the interaction of technology, threat perception, national security strategy, and political forces that led to the rise and fall of limited BMD during the Cold War era and to its resurgence in the 1990s. April 1997 ISBN 0-7618-0686-5 $62.50 (cloth) 408 pages ISBN 0-7618-0687-3 $39.50 (paper)
  • [EXCERPT] U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BRIEFER: JOHN DINGER MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1997 CHINA: U.S. Policy on Future of Taiwan, China, Speaker Gingrich Remarks re U.S. Defense of Taiwan if Attacked by PRC, RUSSIA-IRAN: Reported Sale of Russian SS-4 Missiles to Iran, NORTH KOREA: Status of DPRK Response to Four-Party Talks Proposal; Food Aid Requests
  • NEWS AND VIEWS Summaries of and links to online news reports and commentaries. March 28, 1997
  • NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT IN RESPONSE TO AN INITIATIVE BY THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES, A NON-GOVERNMENTAL GROUPS THAT SUPPORTS NATO, SIXTY-ONE GENERALS AND ADMIRALS FROM SEVENTEEN COUNTRIES RECENTLY CALLED JOINTLY FOR RAPID NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT UNDER A WORLDWIDE VERIFICATION SYSTEM. Voice of America 3/27/97
  • NEWS AND VIEWS Summaries of and links to online news reports and commentaries. March 27, 1997
  • [EXCERPTS] U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing Thursday, March 27, 1997 Briefer: John Dinger NORTH KOREA: Four Party Talks/Food Aid, Possibility of Further Meetings
  • [EXCERPTS] DoD News Briefing Thursday, March 27, 1997 - 2:30 p.m. Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA "As the Secretary pointed out in that speech, he feels very strongly on this issue because he helped write the language in the 1996 Defense Authorization Act that was actually incorporated into the Helsinki understanding."
  • SSDC's Targets Director Promoted During a special ceremony at the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (SSDC)-Huntsville this month, Lt. Gen. Edward G. Anderson III, SSDC's commanding general, promoted Dennis L. Patrick to the rank of Colonel. Col. Patrick is Director of the Targets, Test and Evaluation Directorate at SSDC.
  • NEWS AND VIEWS Summaries of and links to online news reports and commentaries. March 26, 1997
  • Maintaining Our Nuclear Arsenal is Expensive and Dangerous Stephen I. Schwartz The Washington Times 25 March 1997 "In their March 24 Op-Ed ("Which nuke policy?"), Brent Scowcroft and Arnold Kanter dispute the opinion that "having more nuclear weapons than we 'need' is simply a waste of money" by asserting, "Nuclear weapons are relatively cheap accounting for less than four percent of our defense budget." In reality, the Defense Department does not and never has tracked total annual nuclear weapons expenditures."
  • HARDCOPY CURRENT CONTENTS ARTICLE CITATIONS FROM COMMERCIALLY PUBLISHED JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS. March 26, 1997
  • NEWS AND VIEWS Summaries of and links to online news reports and commentaries. March 25, 1997
  • EXERCISE ROVING SANDS ANNOUNCED DOD MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS No. 042-M March 25, 1997 The U.S. Defense Department announced that troops from Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands will join U.S. forces in "Exercise Roving Sands 97," scheduled for April 17-26 in Texas and New Mexico. "During this exercise, the forces will refine their skills in operations using an integrated air defense network of ground, missile, and radar early warning systems..."
  • [Counter Proliferation ACTD] Statement of The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Honorable Paul G. Kaminski Before the Acquisition and Technology Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Armed Services
  • [EXCERPTS] BRIEFING BY THE VICE PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR LEON FUERTH Beijing -- Vice President Gore's meetings with Chinese Premier Li Peng were cordial, notwithstanding the fact that there were sometimes some difficult things to say or to listen to, according to Leon Fuerth, the Vice President's national security advisor.
  • [EXCERPTS] DoD News Briefing Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD (PA) Tuesday, March 25, 1997 - 1:45 p.m. "We take the view that the theater ballistic missile threat is entirely different from a strategic missile threat which are longer range missiles designed to be used against our homeland, against the continental United States; whereas the main threat we face from theater ballistic missiles is that they would be used against our troops stationed abroad or the bases from which they operate."
  • VOA 03/24/97 U-S OPINION ROUNDUP THE HELSINKI SUMMIT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS ARE COMMENTING ON THE RECENTLY COMPLETED SUMMIT IN HELSINKI, WHERE PRESIDENT CLINTON AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN AGREED ON MORE ISSUES, PARTICULARLY IN ARMS CONTROL, THAN MANY OBSERVERS THOUGHT POSSIBLE.
  • NEWS AND VIEWS Summaries of and links to online news reports and commentaries. March 24, 1997
  • Lingering Hope for Missile Defense James Hackett The Washington Times 24 March 1997 "Fourteen years ago yesterday, Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative to see if new technologies could protect the United States against the threat of nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. ... Missile defense opponents claim the threat disappeared with the Soviet Union, so it no longer is necessary to spend money to defend against Russia, now an ally. But there are problems with that argument. One is that Russia still maintains more than 6,000 nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them, in a highly unstable political environment. The old hard-liners could seize power..."
  • ONLINE NEWS AND VIEWS March 22, 1997
  • SUMMIT SATURDAY (S) THE SUMMIT DID PRODUCE WHAT OFFICIALS TERMED BREAKTHROUGHS ON ARMS REDUCTIONS, BUT AGAIN, THE RESULTS MAY BE MORE ILLUSORY THAN REAL. PETER HEINLEIN, HELSINKI, Voice of America, 3/22/97
  • Why Lott's attempt to relaunch 'Star Wars' is going to be shot down Joseph Cirincione This oped ran on page a27 of the Boston Globe on 03/20/97. "The re-release of the movie "Star Wars" made more than $100 million in just a few weeks, but this is small change compared with what Congress wants to spend building the real thing."
  • NEWS AND VIEWS Links to and summaries of onlines news and commentary March 21, 1997
  • [EXCERPTS] PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER, AND DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY LARRY SUMMERS THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Helsinki, Finland) March 21, 1997 "BERGER: ...There are three related breakthroughs. One was a firm commitment by President Yeltsin to promptly press for Duma ratification of START II. This commitment by President Yeltsin was facilitated by agreements on two other related matters. One is a set of guidelines or parameters for START III, and the second is, finally, after three years of negotiation, an agreement on ABM-TMD demarkation."
  • [EXCERPTS] PRESS CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENT CLINTON AND PRESIDENT YELTSIN THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Helsinki, Finland) March 21, 1997 "CLINTON: We signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. We extended a nonproliferation treaty. We stopped targeting each other's cities and citizens. We put START I into force. And we're both committed to securing ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention before it goes into force next month, so that we can finally begin to banish poison gas from the Earth."
  • [EXCERPTS] WHITE HOUSE DAILY BRIEFING, MARCH 20 THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary, (Helsinki, Finland) March 20, 1997 - PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY MCCURRY: We certainly are trying to show what the possibilities are beyond START II, but we also want to address questions that are important to us, too -- how do we -- as we think about reducing the threat of intercontinental nuclear weaponry, we need to also address what the dangers are in regional theater-type ballistic missiles and we need to think about what the implications are for treaties that we've reached in the past, specifically the ABM.
  • USIA WHITE HOUSE REPORT, THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1997 En route Helsinki aboard Air Force One, a senior Administration official reported on the arms control aspects of the summit to the press accompanying the official delegation.
  • CLINTON STATEMENT ON TOKYO GAS ATTACK ANNIVERSARY Helsinki, Finland -- President Clinton joined with the people of Japan in remembering their pain and loss two years ago when terrorists launched a chemical attack in Tokyo's subways that took 12 lives and injured thousands more.
  • DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING Thursday, March 20, 1997 - Briefer: Nicholas Burns IRAQ/FOOD -- The United States welcomes the arrival of the first foodstuffs in Iraq under U.N. Security Council Resolution 986, Burns said. Several tons of food crossed the border from Turkey to northern Iraq on March 19. NORTH KOREA/FOOD -- During on-the-record discussions with reporters after the regular briefing, Burns reported that two U.S. ships will deliver 27,000 metric tons of grains and foodstuffs to North Korea May 4 and May 12. The humanitarian aid is being given in response to an appeal by the World Food Program.
  • [EXCERPTS] SECRETARY COHEN ON U.S. SECURITY ASSISTANCE - 20 March 1997 - Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) and Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund (NDF).
  • HARDCOPY CURRENT CONTENTS MARCH 19, 1997
  • MCCURRY BRIEFING ON CLINTON-PRIMAKOV MEETING March 17, 1997 - Washington -- Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeniy Primakov met with President Clinton in the president's residence at the White House March 17 and the two "went through in a very detailed way those issues that are on the agenda for the two Presidents when they meet in Helsinki," said White House spokesman Mick McCurry.
  • Speaker of the House Gingrich's 13 major areas in the "Agenda" set out in a Monday, March 17, 1997 speech "Finally, on defense it is vital that we protect American territory from missiles from terrorist states or from dictatorships.... The time to begin to defend America from that threat is now." [Congressional Record: March 17, 1997 (House)]
  • [EXCERPT] DoD News Briefing Dr. Paul G. Kaminski, USD for Acquisition and Technology " I think I have been on record pretty clearly about being concerned in some areas of trying to go too fast on some elements of ballistic missile defense. We have been leaning forward to proceed as rapidly as we could. In some cases, we may be going too rapidly." Friday, March 14, 1997 - 10:30 a.m.
  • DOD Contract News Release Number: No. 119-97 Logicon R&D Associates, Los Angeles, Calif., was awarded on March 13, 1997, a $5,447,388 increment of a $98,490,934 modification to a $102,789,226 cost plus award fee contract for Scientific and Engineering Assistance (SETA) to meet current year requirements. March 14, 1997
  • DOD PAO MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS Memorandum: No. 035-M During the course of the on-the-record briefing by Gen. Howell M. Estes, Commander in Chief, U.S. Space Command, at the Pentagon, conducted Thursday, Mar. 13, 1997, Gen. Estes responded to a question regarding TWA Flight 800. March 13, 1997
  • CURRENT CONTENTS March 12, 1997
  • State Pushes to Launch Foreign-Made Missiles The Wall Street Journal -- March 12, 1997 By JACQUELINE BUENO Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Spaceport Florida is at the center of a proposal to allow launches of Israeli rockets from the U.S. To date, U.S. policy has prevented foreign-made rockets from being launched in the U.S., and the proposal requires consent from the White House. It also faces opposition from U.S. aerospace companies and concerns about national security.
  • [START & RALPHA EXCERPTS] PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY: Several people have asked about our preparations for the Helsinki summit next week and where we are. I want to announce one thing first, then talk a little bit about the summit itself. THE WHITE HOUSE March 12, 1997
  • [EXCERPTS] FY 98 Security Assistance Budget Request Thomas McNamara Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. "With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, and advanced conventional weapons now poses the gravest threat to the security of the United States and our allies." Senate Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion March 12, 1997
  • BACKGROUNDER: PROLIFERATION OPTIONS GROW IN POST-COLD WAR ERA (Counterproliferation is at top of NATO's agenda) Washington -- Today's most serious nuclear proliferation threat stems from "material coming out of nuclear weapons as a result of disarmament and finding its way into the wrong hands," says U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) Director John Holum. By Jacquelyn S. Porth, USIA Security Affairs Writer, 10 March 1997
  • STATE DEPT. ANNOUNCEMENT ON U.S.-RUSSIAN SUMMIT U.S.-Russian Summit Dates: The U.S.-Russian Summit in Helsinki, Finland, will begin on March 19. STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY, THE WHITE HOUSE
  • [EXCERPTS] INTERVIEW: DAVID JOHNSON ON CLINTON, CONGRESS, FOREIGN POLICY(From USIA's "U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda," March 1997) White House Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs David Johnson was interviewed by Contributing Editor Wendy S. Ross for the fifth issue of USIA's electronic journal "U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda."
  • [EXCERPTS]: ALBRIGHT ON 3/6 NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER (NOTE: 3/7/97 -- Permission obtained covering republication/translation of the text by USIS/press outside the U.S. On title page carry: From The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, March 6, 1997, co-produced by MACNEIL/LEHRER PRODUCTIONS and WWETA in association with WNET. Copyright (c) by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions.)
  • [THAAD & DPRK EXCERPTS]DoD News Briefing Captain Mike Doubleday, USN, DASD (PA), Thursday, March 6, 1997 - 1:45 p.m.
  • More Penetrating developments Two bits of recent information about lab and Pentagon efforts to field an earth-penetrating capability for use against potential deeply buried targets. From: Bruce Hall at Greenpeace, March 6, 1997
  • ACDA DIRECTOR JOHN HOLUM ON ARMS CONTROL AGENDA Prepared Testimony before House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights 05 March 1997
  • BUSINESS GROUP DECRIES U.S. UNILATERAL ECONOMIC SANCTIONS By Jon Schaffer USIA Staff Writer 04 March 1997 - U.S. unilateral economic sanctions have cost U.S. businesses jobs, put at risk numerous U.S. investments and are rarely effective, says the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). By Jon Schaffer USIA Staff Writer 04 March 1997
  • Military Plans New Methods of Stopping Spy Satellites The U.S. government, having authorized a wave of commercial spy satellites that can peer down from the heavens to pry into all kinds of secrets on the ground, is now exploring ways to destroy such orbital eyes in time of war. By WILLIAM J. BROAD, The New York Times, March 4, 1997
  • [EXCERPTS] TRANSCRIPT: DEFENSE SECRETARY COHEN, DEFENSE MINISTER PORTILLO 03 March 1997



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