Pro and Con

Should U.S. Kill the MX Missile?

YES-"After spending 100 billion dollars, we'll still be vulnerable"

President, Arms Control Association

A In the first place, I believe the MX is a dangerous missile because it can provoke a Soviet attack on the United States. Secondly, the basing scheme that has been proposed will not work in terms of providing invulnerability, to our deterrent force. What we will end up with is a missile system that will provoke an attack by the Soviet Union and that will be vulnerable.

Q How will it provoke an attack?

A Because the MX-missile system is specifically designed to have enough warheads with the characteristics to threaten the entire Soviet intercontinental-ballistic-missile portion of their deterrent-or about 75 percent of their strategic deterrent. The Soviets will obviously have to do something to combat that.

Q With the Increasing vulnerability of the Minuteman-missile system, doesn't the U.S. have to do something to preserve its land-based deterrent force?

A I, too, do not like the situation where an important part of our de