Capitol Ideas/Star-Wars Wars

...Albert jay Nock was probably the most exquisitely educated andcivilized American of his time, as readers of this book will come to realize...

...It's something like a skunk works, if you're familiar with the Lockheed terminology . . . " At that point Wood came into the room...

...The TRW Company in San Juan Capistrano is testing chemical lasers, Wood added, and has been doing so for some time...

...Maybe the Iraq war will have alerted the public to the reality of missile defenses, and to the danger of remaining undefended...

...More, that is, than if all the missiles were in one place...

...But every attempt failed...

...Robert Middlekauff The Huntington Library The political culture of this country was formed, refined, and transmitted by the political sermon—the "pulpit of the American Revolution...

...he has a charming way of becoming an event in a person's life...

...He talked confidently and fluently (see Broad's book for a more detailed sketch...

...The treaty reinforces the natural more, which includes research on Brilthat President Reagan gave his famous said...

...On this score, Wood made the interesting point that "the U.S...

...No one seems to know exactly how many missiles the Soviets have, but the figure of 2,500 is often used...

...But, because of the media fellow at the Hoover Institution...

...Foreword, selected bibliography, acknowledgments, index...

...His writings unleash the instinct for the humane life and sow the seeds of self-education which, after all, is the only kind of education there is...

...Lowell Wood's position at Livermore is "leader of 0 Group, which does special studies," Jeffrey Garberson of Public Affairs was telling me...

...Laser beams can be "defeated" by additional armor, but then there's no leeway "to carry the payload"—Codevilla's point...

...Most of them will be passing ineffectually over the Pacific or the Atlantic—too far from missiles to have time or fuel to get into their path...

...Livermore is burdened with a whole Treaty Verification Research Program, in which (I guess) working around the treaty masquerades as adherence to it...

...Because the missile's speed of the hydrogen bomb, came into the Intelligence Committee...

...As Codevilla likes ton oth Teller and Codevilla are strong hance their careers by making no waves physics in 1965...

...Worse, the existence of a listic mist& as it rises out of the Earth's ing when Edward Teller, the inventor Malcolm Wallop (R-Wy...

...Wood said this information was confidential...

...liant Pebbles, is Lowell Wood, a friend speech advocating a strategic defense "The detailees from the military ser- and protege of Teller's...

...Missile agreements between them...

...bureaucratic disposition...

...range at which the Patriots have been The Strategic Defense Organization has Codevilla boldly calls some defense But there is one great difficulty: getintercepting the Scuds...

...THE STATE OF THE UNION: Essays in Social Criticism By Albert Jay Nock Edited and with a Foreword by Charles H. Hamilton "Admirers of Mr...

...But, as he said, the construction of Soviet missile silos along the trans-Siberian railroad "permits more Brilliant Pebbles to be engaged...

...Its biggest single program is the design and development of nuclear weapons...

...His response to Gelb's "myth" is for a second nuclear lab [in addition to the orbit must pass through the center tor 's Washington correspondent and a to say that indeed the Patriot was not Los Alamos, New Mexico]," according of the Earth...

...on the Senate defense research program has trans- atmosphere...

...But it turned out that he was lis- responded with a column in the Times noramuses have made heroic fusses the Pebble to "see" the moving missile tening...

...Hardcover $38.00 Paperback $12.00 0-86597-092-0 0-86597-093-9 LibertyPress, 1991 0-86597-086-6 0-86597-087-4 LibertyPress 1990 0-86597-090-4 0-86597-091-2 LibertyPress, 1990 Please send me: Quantity Ordered Title Edition Price Amount The State of the Union Hardcover $20.00 Paperback $ 7.50 The Rationale of Hardcover $20.00 Central Banking Paperback $ 8.00 Political Sermons Hardcover $38.00 Paperback $12.00 e pay bookrate postage on prepaid orders...

...Hmmmm...

...The maximum number needed to address such a threat...

...Trained as they are torilliant Pebbles are small orbiting was slightly over eight years...

...After Reagan's 1983 speech, a panel headed by James Fletcher of NASA was "packed with military R&D interest groups united on one point—that there should be no building of missile defenses, but rather, that research should be split among them...

...A single deployed Pebble might cost $1.1 to $1.4 million, and the total cost of deploying enough Pebbles to address a Soviet threat might be $18 billion...

...214 + xiii pages...

...Pebble orbits would always be identical to the flight path of potential missiles, and far fewer Pebbles would be required to threaten the missiles...

...Edmund A. Opitz, Foundation for Economic Education 340 + 200C pages...

...As my friend Art Robinson, who has long advocated both civil and missile defense (see my March 1989 TAS column), said the other day: "Even Soviet militarists spend half on offense and half on defense...

...Please allow approximately 4 weeks for delivery...

...Security was tight at the Livermore lab...

...In response to lasers, for example, missiles might be built with thicker shells, which lasers could not harm...

...Maybe 6,000, of which 4,000 would have to be in operation at zero-hour...

...government knowledge of the failure rate of Soviet missile testing...

...Chemical lasers were not seriously considered, however, for reasons that Codevilla spells out in his 1988 book, While Others Build...

...Therefore, impossibly powerful lasers would be required...

...He has sandy hair and NEW FROM LIBERTY FUND, INC...

...He added that this information had been published in newspapers, although it is not common knowledge...

...In this there may be a plausible answer to Codevilla's objections, and one that might continue to be obscured by secrecy surrounding U.S...

...We've tried," he said...

...The trick like a Venetian gondolier...

...The Soviets have fired salvoes of up to a dozen missiles at once, but given the incompetence of socialist economies, it is hard to imagine them or anyone else launching literally thousands simultaneously...

...1598 + xxxviii pages...

...Thicker-skinned missiles would be too heavy to carry warheads...

...Now 83 years old, Teller (who New York Times columnist Leslie Gelb Are you for or against building this life- than "a small fishing weight" (about has a wooden leg) was propelling him- derided "right wing myths" about mis- saving weapon?' into the politically nar- one ounce), according to Lowell Wood, self forward with an eight-foot staff, sile defenses—principally the "myth" cotic question, Are you for or against will utterly destroy the missile...

...Now, fifty-five of the most revealing political sermons have been made available in modernized and newly typeset form...

...May well be a good way to go," Wood said...

...A Defense Department that cannot defend the mainland will naturally be looking for ways to keep busy—abroad...

...Hamilton seems to have read everything that Nock ever wrote, and his good taste makes this antholog a work of art...

...We only do research and development," he said...

...theory of deterrence...

...Name Address City State/Zip Mail to: LIBERTY FUND, INC...

...Please send me a copy of your current catalogue...

...a part of the SDI program, and a good to William Broad's account in Star Earth's rotation, Pebbles that orbit at THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1991 9 an angle to the equator (which they must do to pass over Soviet missile sites), will traverse different parts of the Earth with each orbit...

...With retaliation this tendency has been reinforced by the a Nobel laureate who ran the radiation With the televised drama of Patriot threatened, missile attacks supposedly ABM treaty, which has been interpreted laboratory at the University of Califormissiles intercepting Scuds, the subject would not occur in the first place...

...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1991 11...

...MasterCardand Visa accepted for a handling charge of $2.50...

...Our informal boast is that we only produce paper...

...Before be- make technical molehills out of moun- El rockets which can be propelled defenses still have not been deployed...

...Since laser beams travel with the speed of light, the "location" problem associated with rockets does not arise...

...Missiles are fired sub-orbitally and test devices shot at them...

...has never succeeded in firing a missile from the Continental U.S...

...The disparity between the number of Pebbles contemplated and the number needed, together with the "endless research" assumption of SDI—"there are more things to be learned before we can make an informed decision whether to defend ourselves," as Codevilla puts it—has led him to characterize the program as "fraudulent...

...So far it has indictment the "Brilliant Pebbles" pro- ICBM in its boost phase, which lasts miles away," Teller suddenly said, "the produced nothing todefenidanrt anybodyy agains not gram at Lawrence Livermore National only for about five minutes...

...The Iraqis obviously had difficulty getting off more than one or two Scuds a day...

...In the boost phase, these may be carrying up to ten warheads each...

...only from Vandenberg Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral...

...calculations quickly and "brilliantly...

...chair at the table next to Codevilla, and program (Gelb is worried that the Pa- shielded their home fronts by voting The computer revolution of the past seemed to be sound asleep within min- triot will give new life to SDI)—Wallop billions 'for SDI,' while conservative ig- twenty years has made it possible for utes...

...But nothing like this many is contemplated...

...The leader of the is once again on many people's minds...

...point out, the interval between President Li advocates of anti-missile defenses, during their tours," Codevilla has writKennedy's speech promising a moon both space- and ground-based...

...but they also do fusion research and special projects like Brilliant Pebbles...

...Depending onassumptions about their velocity and fuel capacity, perhaps only five percent of orbiting Brilliant Pebbles could be sufficiently close to boost-phase ICBMS at any given time...

...to a dubious paper at the best of times, and of course tory's co-founder, Ernest 0. Lawrence, tary defense against missile attacks...

...Milton Friedman, Hoover Institution This work gives a balanced and perceptive account of the 19th-century debates over central banking versus free banking through an historical survey of the arguments in England, Scotland, France, Germany, and the United States...

...Nock will find here a dozen or so of their favorite essays, but what makes this antholog so exciting is the new material — Nock's essays and editorials expertly chosen from various periodicals, 1908-1939...

...If both the attacking and the target country were on the equator, on the other hand, the problem would be simpler...

...in 1952, primarily through the efforts tion...

...The Pebble itself would weigh no more than five pounds, he said...

...He sat in a that the Patriot emerged from the SDI SDI?' Thus leftist congressmen have is to get the pebble in the right place...

...If so, preventing an all-out Soviet attack might require as many as 50,000 Pebbles—an "Asteroid Belt," as Codevilla puts it...

...He was wearing a red open-neck check shirt and a clearance badge in place of a tie...

...The South Badge Office was filled with workmen waiting for clearance...

...All orders from outside the United States must be prepaid in U. dollars...

...Although President Bush's State of the Union speech called for the SDI program to be "refocused on providing protection from limited ballistic missile strikes, whatever their source," only 500 are under consideration by the SDI Office...

...Recently, after formed "the politically potent question, is so great, an object weighing no more room...

...Hardcover $20.00 Paperback $8.00 NEW POLITICAL SERMONS OF THE AMERICAN FOUNDING ERA: 1730-1805 Edited by Ellis Sandoz "Professor Sandoz has provided a superb collection of sermons bearing on the politics of the era of the American Revolution and the early-It' epublic...

...We tried seven times in the 1960s...

...Plus a revealing autobiographical fragment from the 1940's, here in print for the first time...

...spent $24 billion in research in the Utopian research "fraudulent," including in this ting the contraption anywhere near the "If the intercepts had been twenty pursuit of a perfect defense...

...All in all, this is one of the most useful collections of sources available for the study of the young United States...

...The Livermore lab was founded said...

...The site was named Bill at the Hoover Institution, Angelo of the ABM treaty...

...coming a senior research fellow at tains, SDIO pays them to do the very into the path of an intercontinental balCodevilla was about to begin speak- Hoover„Codevilla worked for Senator opposite...

...Signed in 1972, this have a tendency to turn out nothing but after his good friend and the laboraCodevilla addressed the topic of mili- treaty commits the U.S...

...Enclosed is my check or money order made payable to Liberty Fund, Inc...

...Lawrence Livermore has a billion dollar budget and its 10,000 employees are mostly contractors to the Department of Energy...

...No production...

...although not by the nia at Berkeley...

...A strictly by the U.S...

...A few days later, the public relations people told me that Lowell Wood would be available for an interview...

...The argument that Brilliant Pebbles won't work is dependent on the assump- tion of a simultaneous launch of Soviet forces...

...The prob- t debris would have fallen to the ground Yt urn into g.ed If our * a antimissil dead-end efforts d-s ph ro Laboratory, a weapons research facili- lem of Brilliant Pebbles is the same asbeen beenwithout eithout doing any damag " and had focused on workability, our troops ty about forty miles east of San Fran- the problem of real estate," Codevilla Codevilla said that the radar for the in the Gulf, and Israel, might have missile cisco...

...Maybe a little optimism here...

...Location, location, and locaPatriot was originally twice as power- defenses far better than the Patriot...

...Life for the engineers is more landing and the actual moon landing that, however, there are notable dis- complex...

...I was driven a short distance to a World War II Navy barracks building...

...Beyond ten...

...Therefore, only a small percentage of Pebbles will be in the right place at any given time...

...What percentage of these would be in the area of a Soviet launch...

...In particular, the concept of "responsive threat"—holding that we should not consider as targets the missiles that currently exist and threaten us, but rather the missiles that might be built to defeat SDI—effectively prevented building...

...The main point, however, is that little can be done until we repudiate the ABM treaty and all its absurdities...

...Chemical lasers...

...The war itself suggeststhe risks and skewed incentives of a military that is all offense and no defense...

...ful, but the system had been "descoped" of Edward Teller, who "lobbied pas- The laws of physics require that PebThese are Codevilla's sentiments as sionately in Congress and the Pentagon bles orbit in a great circle (the plane of Tom Bethel/ is The American Specta- well...

...Department GG 101 7440 North Shadeland Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46250 10 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1991 a graying beard, and is a few months short of his fiftieth birthday...

...Foreword, preface, appendix, bibliography, index...

...beginning: whenever 'SDI funding' has been and to perform the necessary guidance Codevilla was discussing the (short) 'saved.' The whole matter stinks...

...Baseline fraction is of the order of ten percent available to intercept in boost phase and post-boost phase," he said...

...On this, Codevilla, Teller, and Wood are no doubt in agreement...

...But with its drop-away propellant tanks and buffering sheath the total object might weigh 100 pounds...

...Not so, says Codevilla...

...Hardcover $20.00 Paperback $7.50 Also Available THE RATIONALE OF CENTRAL BANKING By Vera C. Smith Foreword by Leland B. Yeager "Vera Smith's book remains an authoritative and accurate summary of the theoretical arguments for and against free banking, a subject that has recently received renewed attention...

...We cannot even test Brilliant Pebbles in space," Wood said...

...We are a country of nearly a million lawyers, and we honor our treaties scrupulously," Wood said...

...in astroquently called...

...Not only have the Soviets violated the treaty but their foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, admitted as much...

...Foreword, acknowledgments, editor's note, bibliography, chronology...

...El T t is not necessarily an easy thing to 1 launch an ICBM...

...beautiful example of how wrong and Soviets) to permit research and prevent "special studies" program at Liver-It was eight years ago, in March 1983, nonsensical that treaty was," Teller action...

...A decade ago we had the technology to deploy chemical lasers in space, he says, and should already have done so...

...Wood graduinitiative-Star Wars," as it was subse- vices who work at the SDI Office en- ated from UCLA with a Ph.D...