On a String

MX survives again, barely

Assuming they are finally deployed as scheduled in 1986, the first MX missiles are to be stored deep in underground silos, a basing mode that was chosen only after more than 30 other methods were considered. Politically, however, the MX (for missile experimental) program has long had a more precarious base: on the edge of a cliff. Beset by controversy through four Administrations, the weapon was saved from extinction by a bipartisan presidential commission a year ago and funded by a reluctant Congress, only after strong lobbying by Ronald Reagan. Last week a compromise proposal allowed the missile to escape, just barely, its most serious attack yet in the House.

The plan, which was put together by Democrat Les Aspin of Wisconsin, aims a carrot and stick at Moscow: money for the missiles will be held in escrow until next April. If the Soviets agree to resume talks on strategic arms limitations, the MX program will remain on hold. If not, the money will be appropriated. The $2.7 billion that the House Armed Services Committee had requested for 30 missiles was cut to $1.8 billion for 15.

Reagan lobbied strongly for full funding of the MX, arguing that cancellation of the program would reward the Soviets for refusing to resume START talks, which have been inactive since last December. Referring to the MX by the nickname he prefers, the President said, "Without Peacekeeper, the incentive for the Soviets to return to the negotiating table is greatly reduced." But by the weekend before the vote, Speaker Tip O'Neill, an MX opponent, boasted that he had a solid majority to scuttle the missile. Republican Leader Robert Michel then made a publicized pilgrimage to the White House to deliver the hard facts.

Actually, the White House legislative strategy group had already concluded that a compromise would be necessary and had worked behind the scenes with Aspin. After the narrow (218 to 212) defeat of an amendment that would have killed MX funding entirely, the White House endorsed the Aspin compromise just minutes before the final roll call.

Reagan was less successful with another item in his $291 billion 1985 military budget. The House defeated, for the third year in a row, Reagan's attempt to appropriate funds for a new generation of chemical weapons. The Senate Armed Services Committee, however, is expected this week to recommend the funding of 21 missiles and to give the President at least some money for chemical weapons; the full Senate, in which Republicans have a majority, will probably go along. All of which means further compromises and cliffhangers are likely when House and Senate conferees sit down to work out their differences this summer.