The question has been asked, “Why have you suddenly changed your position on the bases from negotiations to possible renunciation?”
Wideman of Washington Post of course, claiming diplomatic circles as his source, alleges this is just my way of increasing the price for the use of the bases.
But the State Department report on human rights merely emphasizes the unreliability of the U.S. as an ally and the latest reports on the intelligence assessment of Russian strategies, intentions and capability. (The group of relatively hard-line outsiders, led by Harvard Prof. Richard Pipes that conclude [sic] the Russians are not aiming for mere military parity but are seeking clear superiority. There are two separate panels of outsiders one on the accuracy of Soviet Union missiles and the second on actual effectiveness of its air defenses. On accuracy, the first panel estimates that by 1980 the Russians will be able to drop a [sic] ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] within 300 feet of its target—an astonishing improvement over the quarter-mile margin for error currently created by the Soviets. U.S. missiles accuracy at present is said to be 500 feet or less).
The warning of Maj. Gen. George J. Keenan Jr. for years Air Force Chief of intelligence that the Soviet Union is making preparations for a global nuclear war, “Soviets are working on dramatically exotic new weapons, twenty years ahead of anything ever conceived in the U.S. so awesome as to lead the Soviets to ______ in the coming decade, they could neutralize our ballistic and submarine missiles.”
No Official Gazette entry for this day.