The United States officials lost no time. Warning of a "bomber gap" - a gap that
they believed meant that the Soviet Union had more long range bombs than the United States
- they announced a crash program to build more planes. By
1958, the United States had five times more long range bombers
than the Soviet Union. The huge imbalance proved that the
bomber gap had never existed.
The United States shifted to a "missile gap." During the presidential
election campaign of 1960, Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy said the Soviet Union had
more ICBMs than the United States did. If he were elected, Kennedy promised, he would see
to it that the United States caught up.
Far from opting out of the arms race as McNamara had predicted, the Soviets accelerated
their buildup. Between 1962 and 1972, the Soviet Union deployed five new ICBMs, a new
SLBM, and four new types of ballistic missile submarine. By 1972 the Soviets possessed
1,510 -- roughly, about 500 more than the United States. The buildup after the signing of
SALT in 1972 would be even more rapid.
Kennedy was elected, and the United States began massive missile-building programs. As
it turned out, the missile gap was no more real than the bomber gap of the past years. In
1967, President Johnson revealed that fact casually to friends at a party.
Need or not, the ICBMs were built.
The neutron bomb was another new weapon that President Reagan favored building. This
bomb is also known as an "enhanced radiation weapon." It is a hydrogen bomb that
produces such an intense fusion reaction that it releases more energy as radiation than as
a blast.
Like any other nuclear weapon, the neutron bomb would utterly destroy the area of
impact. But in the area outside, damage to structures would be less than
damage incurred with an ordinary nuclear bomb. Radiation effects, however, would be far greater.
For over hundreds of acres, there would be no human, animals or plant life
left alive. Within
a hundred acres of ground zero, even insects, bacteria, algae, and fungi would be
destroyed.
Finally,
Reagan endorsed Carter's plan to deploy Pershing II and cruise
missiles in Europe starting in late 1983. Both of these highly
sophisticated weapons are designed to counter the threat posed
by Soviet SS-20s. Pershing II's, based in West Germany, would
be able to reach their Soviet targets eight minutes after
launch. They were designed to be powerful enough to destroy
concrete-reinforced shelters as deep as 100 feet underground.
Cruise missiles are slow but accurate, low-flying missiles.
They fly very low to the ground so that they cannot be
detected by radar.
No
matter who started the war, the war of developing nuclear
weapons, the war of extremely raw power, leading to the final
war, it all ends the same. The world will perish under the
wrath of the mighty bomb.
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