2 days ago
From The Hindu, August 20, 1975: Ford asks USSR not to interfere in Portugal
Minneapolis (Minnesota), Aug. 19: President Ford said to-day he will ask Congress for an additional $ two to three billions for nuclear weapons unless the Soviet Union helps shape a strategic arms agreement.
Mr. Ford also warned that the Soviets could endanger detente by interfering in Portugal to support the communist-backed military Government there.
He defended American warmth toward the Soviet Government but he also declared the U.S. must be Number 1 in military might in an address prepared for the American Legion National Convention here.
'I hope we are on a two-way street with the Soviet Union,' Mr. Ford said.
But he said that potential adversaries are not reducing the levels of their military power and 'the United States must be alert and strong.'
He said that the $92.8 billions including $9.8 billions for nuclear arms, in the Defence budget was the 'bare minimum required for our safety'. He pledged to his military-oriented audience he will 'vigorously resist' defence spending cuts.
Maybe in the 1977 fiscal year spending on nuclear forces can be held down but the projection depends on 'real progress in SALT II (strategic arms limitations talks),' Mr. Ford said.
If there can be no agreement, 'I will have no choice but to recommend to the Congress an additional $ two to three billions for strategic weapons programme in the current and coming fiscal years,' he said.
Mr. Ford also said the U.S. was watching to see if the Soviet Union would honour individual rights and human freedoms that were implicit in the declaration at the recent European summit conference at Helsinki.
