American Notes Star Wars

There are many ways for the Pentagon to sell a new defense project to Congress, but one of the most efficient is to link the system's future to the economies of regions represented by those who will be voting on it. A report issued by the Council on Economic Priorities, a liberal New York City think tank, indicates that is just what is happening with Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as Star Wars. The states of Senators who are members of the Armed Services Committee or of Appropriations' Defense Subcommittee have received on the average $34 million in SDI contracts, six times the amount received by states whose Senators are not members.

The Pentagon has already signed 350 SDI-related contracts, and about 77% of the initial prime contracts have gone to areas represented by eight Congressmen and 14 Senators. "At this rate," says Richard Garwin, a critic of SDI and a noted IBM physicist, "the program will soon have such momentum that there'll be no stopping it, regardless of merit." Says former Chief Arms Control Negotiator Paul Warnke: "What's happening is the rapid conversion of the President's Star Wars proposal from stardust and moonbeams to the great pork barrel in the sky."