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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 14, 1986
ON THE WORLD SCENE
FRENCH MISSILE SURPRISE; PHILIPPINES/NICARAGUA PARALLEL:
AMERICA SHRINKS FROM THE CHALLENGE
In the last "On the World Scene" col�mn, we reported on the steady buildup
of France's strategic nuclear forces, especially its submarine arsenal.
France's ambitious program took another step this past week, as reported
in the March 6 NEW YORK TIMES:
'
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\ , The French Defense Ministry announced today that a submarine
had successfully fired a multiple-warhead missile over a·
distance of 6,000 kilometers (3,720 miles). The announcement
surprised Western European defense experts, who had believed
that the range of the missile, the M-4, was closer to 4,000
kilometers (2,480 miles). The announcement and the disclosure
of the greater range were seen by military experts as a signal
that France intended to press ahead with modernization of its
nuclear forces despite Soviet objections•••• The Defense
Ministry said the new multiple-warhead missile would be
installed on all French missile-firing submarines, replacing a
shorter-range single-warhead missile••••
Military experts said the missile's greater range would make
French submarines more secure against attack by giving them a
larger area of ocean to hide in, while still being able to hit
targets in the Soviet Union.
They said France might have
decided that a 6,000-kilometer range was necessary to insure
/ �� at its submarines could escape detection by American and
l_.;9 viet antisubmarine warfare devices.
The French Defense Ministry has not disclosed how many separate
charges the M-4 warhead is designed to carry. Davids. Yost,
in a study of French defense policy published last year by the
International Institute of Strategic Studies, quotes a French
defense official as having said that the new missile will
�eliver six charges, each with an explosive power of 150
kilotons of TNT•••• [Another expert] said the number of charges
might have been reduced as a trade-off to increase the range of
the missile.
The reference to France wanting to make certain that its long-range subs
could escape detection by both Soviet and American surveillance is
noteworthy.
The French are concerned that someday the Soviets and
Americans could reach agreement on limiting nuclear arms in Europe and
that Moscow might persuade Washington to "share" intelligence with it on
the whereabouts of third-party nuclear weapons systems.
�e Philippines and Nicaragua: Lessons Unlearned The United States, it
( turns out, was far from neutral in the·recent bloodless revolution in the
Philippines.
Even though Secretary of State George Shultz claimed
initially that the "people power" rebellion was entirely "made in the
Philippines," subsequent information reveals that the U.S. was directly
involved at key junctures to make certain that the uprising succeeded.
When crews of a squadron of six helicopter gunships elected to defect to