Swap Star Wars

When Secretary of State George Schultz and his Soviet counterpart. Andrei Gmomyko, emerge from their closed session this afternoon, it is hard to see that anything meaningful will have transpired, at least according to the maximalist standards held by the hordes of Western press who have flocked to Geneva. The best that can be hoped for will be an agreement for the two, or some of their underlings, to meet again to continue discussion on how to make reductions in the huge nuclear stockpiles held by the two countries. Certainly, however, such future talks will be doomed to failure if the Administration persists in its expensive and misguided plans to develop a space-based missile defense.

The so-called Star Wars plan calls for the development of space shields and weapons to destroy oncoming missiles and enemy satellites--an intergalatic Maginot Line that would, in theory, render an opponent's arsenal impotent. The prospect of militarizing space was sufficiently jarring to bring the Soviets back to the table after they stormed out of talks more than a year ago. The Administration, though, insists, at least officially, that it is determined to press forward with its plans regardless of negotiations.

Just what the White House really intends to do about Star Wars has been clouded by the infighting and whispering campaigns that have engulfed Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon since Gromyko and Schultz announced they would meet last September. Is it supposed to protect cities--or just missile silos? Is it a bargaining chip--or will the Administration agree to forgo the multi-billion project at the bargaining table?

Whatever the motives and intentions of the Administration, it would be supremely foolish to reject any Soviet overtures to limit Star Wars development, as at least some in the Pentagon desire. The problem is that the Administration's contention that space-based defense offers a better avenue to deterrence than mutual assured destruction ignores the scientific consensus that a fool-proof missile defense would be impossible to achieve and prohibitively expensive. Proceeding indiscriminately with Star Wars development only offers the hope of a budget-draining resumption of the arms race in outer space, because, as the history of the nuclear arms race has shown so well, any attempt to gain superiority over the Soviets will doubtless be matched in time.

Going ahead with some degree of Star Wars technology research on a basic level--though at far less than the current $26 billion price tag--is reasonable given on-going Soviet interest in this field and the wholly unverifiable nature of such research. But beyond such limited, general exploration, as with all its real and imagined weapons systems, the Administration should be prepared to deal--and hopefully to start cutting into the plethora of offensive weapons that so threaten mankind.