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Show Senator Garn Blasts Defense Policy The United States' unilateral or one-sided decisions to halt the production of B-l bombers and to shut down all production of intercontinental inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM'-s) (ICBM'-s) without getting concessions from Russia in return has put this nation in a dangerous defense situation, according ac-cording to Utah's Senator Jake GarrL Garn told a recent audience at the Utah Farm Bureau Federation's annual convention in Salt Lake City that the United States believed Russia would cut back on weapons production produc-tion if we did. "But they just go on building," he added. The senator feels that the U.S. is not in immediate danger because our Minuteman three missile is far more accurate than Russian ICBM's. But by the mid-1980's, he predicted, their rockets will be accurate enough to destroy 90 percent of our retaliatory force in a first strike and that this nation will then be in mortal danger unless we move to strengthen our own weaponry in the meantime. Russia has built four times as many ships and submarines in the last 10 years as has the U.S., he pointed out. She has more than 100 Backfire bombers (equivalent to our B-l, on which production has been halted) and is building more steadily. The current SALT talks further threaten this nation's military future, Garn stated. While our B-l bombers are included in the negotiations- in case we change our minds and begin production on them--the Russian backfire bombers are not. And the current negotiations limit rocket ranges, such as 350 miles for submarine-launched rockets; 50 percent of the U.S. population is that close to oceans, while two percent of Russia'a population is within that submarine range. SALT I permitted Russia to come from way behind and catch up to U.S. military strength after World War II, he said, SALT II, he predicts, will allow Russia to gain great superiority in eight to ten years. "We should prevent war through strength, not weakness," Garn avowed as he spelled out the military deemphasis in the U.S. which has reduced her naval strength from 900 ships to 459, with similar cutbacks in . other areas. |