Arms Control
Anderson was active in opposing deployment of the MX missile in new protective silos. Support for MX was based on claims by defense officials that a "window of vulnerability" existed in the Minuteman missile system—that the Soviet Union could achieve first-strike capability. Alarmed at Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's announcement that the U.S. intended to seek such capability for itself, Anderson believed that data showing danger of Soviet first-strike capability was greatly exaggerated. He authored seven papers between 1979 and 1983 opposing MX, in which he maintained there was no "window of vulnerability," due to known margins of error in the reliability, accuracy and testing of missile systems. He also founded a program called International Peace Issues Forum, for students to discuss arms control and disarmament issues. As recently as 2004 the group Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers listed Anderson as a member of Citizens for Global Solutions who is available to do public speaking on the subject of arms control.
Read more about this topic: J. Edward Anderson
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