When Khrushchev sneaked his 2,000-mile missiles into Cuba in 1962, the United States had an 8-to-1 lead over the Soviet Union in nuclear striking power and the means of delivering it to enemy targets. Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham, until recently director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has provided the proof of how the Soviets have caught and passed us in both nuclear and conventional military strength.
From a lead of 600 intercontinental ballistic missiles, the United States is now 600 behind. All the Soviet ICBMs are many times more powerful than our ICBMs. From a lead of 16 Polaris-type submarines, the United States is now 13 behind. Incidentally, the secret blueprints of our Polaris submarines were stolen by Russian spies.
From a lead of 2,900 tactical aircraft, the United States is now 350 behind. The Soviets now have 10,000 surface-to-air missiles to our none, 500 intermediate-range ballistic missiles to our none, and 64 anti-ballistic missiles to our none.
In major surface ships, the United States has gone from 130 ahead to 70 behind. In men under arms, the United States has 2.1 million to 4.8 million for the Soviets.
General Graham concludes that “these figures add up to overall military superiority of the Soviet Union.”
Meanwhile the Soviets have successfully tested four new long-range offensive missiles — the SS-16, SS-17, SS-18, and- SS-19.
They have also developed transportable anti-ballistic missile systems, including high energy lasers on a broad scale, which the editor of Aviation Week and Space Technology describes “as a truly effective system.”
Not since the war preparations of Nazi Germany under Hitler in the 1930’s has a major nation at peace devoted such a high percentage of its resources to the production of weapons and to the buildup of the related scientific, techical, and industrial base for military production.
And what has been the response of the United States in the face of this increasing Soviet military threat? A recent major speech by Congressman Jack Kemp shows how U.S. spending for national security has been drastically cut in real dollars. Of course, all figures are up because of inflation.
But, whereas defense, spending has increased 100 percent since 1962, everything else has increased much, much more. Expenditures for natural resources have increased 420 percent, education 772 percent, health 2,778 percent, interest on the Federal debt 400 percent, Federal law enforcement 708 percent, and revenue sharing 4,174 percent.
These figures give the lie to all the current claims that we spend too much on defense and can’t afford to buy the weapons we need to stay ahead of the Russians.
History will record that Richard Nixon’s greatest mistake was to appoint Henry Kissinger, and that Gerald Ford’s greatest mistake was to fall for the folly of Kissinger’s detente and his agreements with the Soviets which froze us in second place.
