European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns Jim Fain the stars and stripes monday August 11. 1987 at Long lost o sane policy in Central America in the Reagan administration will negotiate in Good Faith a Large if considering ils record we May finally have the makings of a sane policy in Central America. Congressional democrats have a right to he cynical. They be been led Down his Garden path w often they feel jilted Char lie Brown when Lucy snatches the foot Ball he is about to kick. As predictably As an eclipse the administration trots out a negotiating offer whenever a vote looms on Contra funding. Its greatest embarrassment came in september 1984, when it initially welcomed inc first Concadora plan. Nicaragua then stunned Reagan s people by accepting the proposal prompting the stale department to pressure Al Salvador and Honduras into Torpe doing it. Reagan made his intransigence Clear in february 1985 with i All they have to do is say Uncle " ultimatum Elliott Abrams his resident firebrand for latin policy ruled out a Deal be cause he said the sandinista would Doe live up to one. In 1986, with another vote pending ska an dispatched ambassador Philip Habib to the Region but forgot to Tell him he was not supposed to negotiate Habib almost had a Deal when slate jerked him Back. We needed a plausible negotiating track an official told the new York times. We did t realize he would View Ilas his role to achieve a treaty this Spring or memoranda made Public in the Iran Centra hearings showed rear adm. John Poindexter Gleeful Over such ruses. It was administration policy to give lip service to diplomacy but never to negotiate realistically. Why then is the new plan different maybe it in t. Maybe the cynics Are right but some of the key players have William Buckley changed. While Bill Casey lived he could always persuade the president not to negotiate. Now Reagan is getting More temperate advice. Howard Baker Frank Carlucci and William Webster Are reasonable men. So is George Shutlz who May no longer permit the hawkish Abrams to free wheel policy. At least the fire breathers on the far right arc worried. Sens. Malcolm Wallop and Jesse Helms fear we May be serious about negotiating. Wall Street journal editorials Huff alarm. . Policy has Long been hostage to the two extremes. The right Wing will Settle for nothing less than the overthrow of the sandinista. The left failing to understand Ihal a communist regime in the area is a threat to its neighbors de mands a unilateral pull out. Both spout apocalyptic nonsense. Supporting the contras always made sense if used As a lever to encourage Managua to bargain. The notion that these rag lag rebels could overthrow the sandinista regime and impose democracy by Force was fatuous however As most military experts who studied he situation testified. The 60-Day deadline in the current proposal is unrealistic. Some of ils other Points May need modification. It can get us off to a promising Start however if Reagan is serious. If he s not his credibility with Congress such As it is will be hopelessly lost a fact Howard Baker surely appreciates. House speaker Jim Wright has caught his share of brickbats Lor push ing the plan. Many of his troops con Sider him terminally naive. He ought to be getting credit instead. If Reagan Breaks Faith. Congress can always re turn to the wars. If he keeps his word we will have the beginnings of bipartisan policy at last. Tow of won Ixer stud m in conc mini end can Nten mip a. Apr War in or in Mon Aid in him Wiy to to cd Nikand a Tow vow o to Eliot ind Tnp or the Ulm s a Opp Ness increasing among ski detractors for a few months after the Summit at Reykjavik the soviet Union eased up its tirade against the Strate Gic defense initiative of or. Reagan. The obvious Rea son for doing so was to lubricate the Deal the soviets had immediately in mind in effect the Denu Clariza Tion of Western Europe. But now they insist that no further talk about a reduction of strategic missiles can possibly go Forward unless the United states pledges to gut ils space shield program. In Houston a few weeks ago at the meeting of democratic candidates for president sen. Albert Gore or. Undertook to give As one reason for his opposition to the space shield the report of the american physical. Society issued last april to which report he referred with biblical reverence. I have remarked previously about the vulnerability of that report but evidence of its sloppiness increases. Herewith an example of the strange behaviour of some american physicists. What brought on the latest scandal was a letter signed by 3j congressmen addressed to the president of the american physical society. What the legislators wanted to know was How he could reconcile the errors in the report with the ostensible competence of his panel. The president has replied to those congressmen in a report characterized by the and hoc committee retained by National review to maintain an ski watch As a smoke screen of jargon that generally avoid dealing with the substance of he damaging the physicists report claimed that laser technology of the kind ultimately envisioned by the strategic de sense initiative would be useless against soviet missiles for one simple reason the soviets Are in a position to shield their icbms. How by coating them with a substance that would deflect hostile laser beams yes the ski watch committee reports it is possible so to protect a missile. But what then happens to it obviously if the shielding is too heavy the icbms missile would nol be Able to Rise from he ground. It matters then to estimate the weight of the shielding in order to calculate what kind of to nag the missiles would need id subject themselves to in order to do their duty. " How did the aps calculate the weight of the shield ing its method would make a High school physics student Blush. The right Way to do it is first to figure the thickness of the shielding you need and then figure the surface area of the missile. Thai tells you the total weight of the shielding to be slapped on. A House Painter figures his requirements in the same Way he estimates the area of the House s Walls and that tells him the number of Gallons of paint he needs. But the aps calculated the amount of shielding required from the weight of he missile. That is like a House Painter weighing a House to estimate the num Ber of Gallons of paint he the whole Point of the exercise is thai in order to shield sufficiently to neutralize a laser beam an is is the deadliest of the soviet missiles would need 10 shed seven of ils 10 warheads. This Datum is critical. The whole idea of the space shield in t to Block the entry of All hostile missiles but to Block a sufficient number of them id make the exercise unprofitable. If one could reduce by 70 percent the missiles the soviet Union is now in a capacity to launch one has made the very idea of a first strike suicidal and therefore inconceivable. Add to this thai even those missiles thai penetrated the laser curtain would then face the kinetic Energy anti ballistic missiles on the downward phase of their trajectory and you can understand soviet apprehension at us Progress in devel Oping a space shield. 11 is As easy As this to the extent we succeed with a space shield to the Iam extent we bring about soviet disarmament. After six years of this Rurh Lrus things he Sis the russians Are How was cheap of is
