25. STICKING POINTS
The Strategic Defense Initiative continued to touch a raw nerve in the
Soviet leadership. But even before Reykjavik, the Politburo recognized
that Reagan would never give up his outer-space project. Moscow’s
priority changed towards finding a way to limit its potential to
undermine the USSR’s security. The possible options were obvious.
The Politburo could cajole the White House. It could ventilate its
objections before the court of world opinion. Or it could finance its
own counterpart to the Initiative. Or it could simply hope that the
programme would prove a waste of American time and finance.
The last option was not one that any Politburo member was
minded to espouse. Zaikov, Shevardnadze and Chebrikov met on
13 January 1987 to discuss a letter to Gorbachëv from Dr Henry Ken-
dall, Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists in America.
Kendall stressed that, despite the President’s promises, the Initiative
had dangerous potential. His proposal was to divide the programme
into two and allow the Americans to test one part in outer space while
forgoing tests on the other part for the next ten years. Soviet leaders
pointed out that America could experiment with search and tracking
sensors in pursuit of ‘strategic superiority’. The USSR needed to ascer-
tain which of the Initiative’s ingredients posed a cardinal threat and
offer a deal on arms reduction in return for the Americans dropping
them.^1 With this in mind, the Politburo reached out to all groups in
the West that sought to stop or reduce Reagan’s project. There was
awareness in Moscow that there were opportunities even in Washing-
ton, where Democratic politicians frequently criticized the admini-
stration’s efforts as either bellicose in nature or simply a waste of public
money; and scientists like Kendall could possibly be nudged towards
positions closer to the Politburo’s claims about the intentions behind
the American research programme.
Leading scientists in the USSR lobbied Gorbachëv to increase
finance for a direct counterpart to the Defense Initiative. Acting on