]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]        BUSH'S HEADACHE:             [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ 
           Soviets continue to build missle defenses    (12/26/1988)
               By Rowland Evans and Robert Novak,
               syndicated columnists, 12/23/88

             [Kindly uploaded by Freeman 07656GAED]


  Sky  satellite pictures showing what appears to be construction  of
two  giant new Soviet radars suggest that Mikhail Gorbachev has  pro-
mised  military  leaders  full-speed ahead on missile  defense  as  a 
trade-off  for  the reduced conventional defense he outlined  in  his 
Dec. 7 U.N. speech.
  If  U.S. intelligence is correctly reading the CIA's new  satellite 
imagery, it will confront President-elect Bush with nagging questions 
about  his  strategic  policy.  The new  radars  would  widen  Soviet 
defenses against U.S. nuclear missiles to nearly 90 percent of Soviet 
territory,  complicating the long overdue decision on the makeup  and
deployment of America's land-based strategic force.
  This  helps  explain Bush's statement last week that there  is  "no 
way"  he  will resume talks on the strategic arms treaty  (START)  by 
Feb. 15, as previously scheduled.  Indeed, Bush's  national  security 
strategy  may  not be ready for serious START negotiations  for  many 
months,  no  matter how badly Gorbachev wants Bush's signature  on  a 
treaty.   As of today, there is not even a target date  for  resuming 
talks.
  Discovery  of the two new radars, each of which would cost  between 
$2 billion and $3 billion, has intensified high-level talk here about 
Gorbachev's  domestic  political strategy.   The  Soviet  president's
pledge  to  cut  his  military  forces  by  10  percent  and   remove 
substantial weaponry from Eastern Europe and the Soviet-Chinese  bor-
der  coincided  with  the sudden resignation of  Marshall  Sergei  F. 
Akhromeyev, No. 2 official in the Soviet Defense Ministry.
  U.S. Kremlinologists say the marshall quit to send a clear,  covert 
signal  of incipient military revolt against perestroika.  They  call 
it  a maneuver to warn Gorbachev that the military would  not  permit 
Soviet national security to be endangered. 
  But  Gorbachev's willingness to approve the tremendously  expensive 
construction  of  a nationwide missile defense system  casts  extreme 
doubt  on  this hypothesis.  Even if Gorbachev  would  actually  risk
anything  approaching military revolt (which seems ridiculous on  its 
face), the clear indications are the reverse.  The shrewdestleader on 
the world stage would be more likely to buy peace with  his  military 
commanders -- which is precisely what the new radars signify.
  Further  evidence  of  this  is found  in  Gorbachev's  refusal  to 
dismantle yet another new radar -- the Krasnoyarsk phased-array radar 
in  western  Siberia.  It has been declared a violation  of  the  ABM 
treaty both by President Reagen and a unanimous vote by Congress  be-
cause  it was not built on the periphery of the Soviet Union, as  re-
quired by the ABM treaty.  But Gorbachev has done nothing to  disman-
tle it.
  To the contrary, a  Soviet general staff officer made an extraordi-
nary  remark recently to a U.S. official, while they were  inspecting 
verification  sites  in the Soviet Union under the INF  treaty.   The 
real  purpose of the Krasnoyarsk radar, he confided, was  to  provide 
full  battle-management  defense against missiles  launched  by  U.S. 
Trident submarines.
  That  conversation  seemed to close the door on any  future  Soviet 
decision  to blind the radar, as Gorbachev has repeatedly  hinted  to 
Reagen that he plans to do.
  All  told, counting the illegal Krasnoyarsk and the  two  just-dis-
covered  radars, the Soviets now have 11 phased-array  radars  either
completed or in construction.  The U.S. has none at all.
  Little wonder that Bush and his men worry.  Gorbachev seems to have 
cut a deal for perestroika with his military leaders that builds on a 
solid strategic foundation.  Bush enters the Oval Office with only  a 
flimsy foundation and no policy in place.  

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