SS

CANADA: ———_____—

TO LIKE
OR

TO LUMP

PRIORITIES

Are the Canadian people
more concerned with. the
vital issues raised by the
American decision to press
ahead with the anti-missile
program than their members
of parliament? During the
emergency debate on. the
missiles Wednesday eve-
ning, 500 people filled the
public galleries while the
number of MPs hovered near
the minimum quorum of 20.
There were never more than
60 of the 263 members pre-
sent. At least the public had
its priorities straight.

Editorial, Globe and Mail,

March 21, 1969.

By PHYLLIS CLARKE

“Like it or lump it,” is what
according to U.S. Senator J. Wil-
liam Fulbright, Defence Secre-
tary Laird is telling Canadians.

Laird in testifying before the
Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee, had indicated that there
never was an understanding by
which Canada could veto sites
of such missiles.

He indicated that the Nixon
administration does not feel it
is necessary to “clear” with Can-
adian authorities the sites for the
ABM system which Nixon
just approved. :

Earlier in the Senate armed
services committee when Laird
was asked by Senator Thomas J.
McIntyre “to what extent per-
mission is needed from Canada”
because of concern that hy-
drogen weapons would be ex-
ploded over Canada in event of
interception, Laird did not reply.

Although Laird kept referring
to an “original agreement” with
Canada, he was far from specific
about any terms of it.

The proposed ABM system
would be deployed around the
Minutemen sites and the first
two proposed are at points close
to the Canadian border, Grand
Forks, North Dakota and Malm-
strom Air Force Base in Mon-
tana.

One scientist who has raised
lots of doubt about the ABM
system is Dr. Arthur Porter, pro-
fessor of industrial engineering
at the University of Toronto.
Commenting on the justification
of the ABM system as a defense
of U.S. nuclear deterrent cap-
bility, he said:

“This seems the most fatuous
statement one can imagine. Why
defend the Minutemen ICBM
silos with an ABM when you
can do it simply by digging the
silos deeper? Why not just put
in a million tons of concrete, if
that’s all you want to do?

“It’s just a guess, but I'd Say,
you could defend the ICBMs fo,
a thousandth of the price that
way.”

One of the developers of radar,
Dr. Porter also made clear that
in his view the main issue is not
that of Canadian sovereignty,
but the prevention of nuclear
war. “This sort of development
will really speed up escalation,”
he said.

These are some of the ques.
tions that one hopes Prime Min.
ister Trudeau will be |
into in his talks with President
Nixon.

T.C. Douglas, after the debate
in Parliament, which left the
whole question well up in the
air, said he felt Washington was
treating Canada “as a hunk of
geography” first exploiting it
economically and now subjecting
it to the peril of being in the
path of nuclear fall-out.

Besides the fall-out question,
Canadians also are looking at
what this does for world peace,
And if the government decides
to support the Nixon policy, how
many billions of dollars will we
be shelling out to the U.S. mili-
tary-industrial complex?

Here’s how Mary Van Stolk,
Edmonton author, put the ques-
tion in the Toronto Star:

“The existing defence system
cannot and was not designed to
defend any populations; what it
is designed to defend are the
missile sites and high security
shelters of military personnel.
Therefore, a further defense
system to defend a _ system
which does not defend the civi-
lian population is ludicrous...

“Idiots and generals may de-
light in discussing the ability to
protect missile sites, but surely
not sane people.”

This whole debate of course
once more raises the question
of Canada and NORAD—renew-
ed last year by the government

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S. PEACE FORCES Pitt

The decision by President
Nixon to go ahead on the ABM
system is meeting with increased
resistence within and without
Congress, which will have the
final say.

And even Nixon’s decision was
for only part of the whole Pen-
tagon plan—into which already
about four billion dollars has
been sunk for research.

The so-called “thin” system to
which the President gave his
support is estimated by U.S.
News and World Report as “the
single most expensive weapon in
history—at a cost of 5-10 bil-
lion dollars.” It will deploy ABM
sites to protect the Minutemen
missiles.

It is also estimated that if the
whole program were to be under-
taken the cost could go up to
anywhere between $60 and $100
billion.

tain segments of U.S. Congress,
in scientific circles and in citi-
zens Official interest groups in
local communities.” It is there
presumably that the Pentagon
public relations officers go to
work.

It is from the Pentagon that
some of the information on who
will make money out of the
ABM system also comes. More
than 3,000 firms will share in
the billions to be made.

The prime contractor on de-
veloping the system is Western
Electric with main headquarters
in Whippany, New Jersey. They
are the owners of Bell systems
which will manufacture the
computer systems.

The other major subcontrac-
tors are General Electric (Peri-
miter Asquision Radar), Ray-
theon Corporation (Missile Site

development are going full
speed ahead.” Public opposition
has only affected “acquisition of
sites and site construction.”

Army Regulation No. 360-11,
signed by Army Chief of Staff,
William C. Westmoreland, au-
thorizes this propaganda cam-
paign and a massive volume has
been prepared with details of the
plan.

The volume reads like the stra-
tegic plans for a full scale mili-
tary operation. It is broken into
three phases beginning with the
selection and announcement
publicly of a missile site and
progressing to actual deploy-
ment. The plan lays down a
strategy for squads of Pentagon
public relations officers to move
into a community, woo the
press, serenade the local poli-
ticians and soft-pedal opposition.

i ‘

| The Westmoreland order de- Radar), McDonald Douglas
Tal ha Less than a week before Nix- —clares, “Objectives: Gain public  (Spartain Missiles), ‘Martin Mar-
vi on’s statement the Pentagon un- _—understanding of the necessity of _ietta (Spring Missiles), Lock-
wit veiled its plans for a massive 4 communist Chinese-oriented heed Electronics (Computers),

public relations drive to sell the —_anti-ballistic missile system... | RCA-Motorola (Integrated Cir-

, system. Opposition to ABM Sentinel de- cuit Packages), Sperry Rand |
Major John Goetz, a Pentagon ployment has arisen and been (Computer Program Develop-

, public relations officer, told the _ publicly expressed in three sec- _ment).

Daily World that “research and tions of public opinion: in cer- So far $475 million has gone

Bieenacas,
‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 28, 1969—Page 6 -