Evening star., 1960-01-28
Forqotten Gup


mlnlstratlon" has been doing tricks with
intelligence information in an attempt
70 deceive the American people as to
the seriousness of the missile gap."
The Missouri Senator, a presidential
hopeful, also says he realizes that his
accusations might "be labeled as DO
utically motivated by those who prefer
TO conceal the facts, and by others who
DO not know the facts"
1t Is not our purpose to accuse
Senator Symington of playing politics
With this grave question. Nor do we
pretend to know all the facts concern
ing the accuracy of this country's
intelligence estimates. If we may be
permitted one comment, however, it is
that we wish Senator Symington had
named names and had cited hard facts
to support his charge that "the intelli-
gence books have been juggled so the
budget books may be balanced" There
is certain glibness to this-and also,
IN the absence of supporting evidence,
certain reckleSSnesS
II the Senator was referring to cur
rent intelligence estimates, and the
methods by which they are made, a
statement made the night before by
Allen Dulles, director of Central Intel
ligence, is worthy of note Mr.. Dulles
said: Il can assure you that in prepar-
Ing them Intelligence estimatesl we
look to nothing but the available facts,
disregarding all outside considerations,
political, budgetary or other. Facts
have no politics. We are diligently
seeking the facts without fear or
favor"
Judging from the text of the Sy-
mington statement, however, his princi-
pal complaint is that instead of relying
on estimates of Soviet ability to produce
missiles, as was the case year ago,
we are now taking into account their
intention to produce we see nothing
wrong with this. But Senator Syming-
ton says that through this process "the
administration has given the people the
impression that the missile deterrent
gap has been sharply reduced and
possibly eliminated"
This brings to mind another and
almost forgotten gap-the bomber gap,
about which so much was being heard
three or four years ago. Intelligence
estimates, based on Soviet capability,
Indicated that the Russians might sur
pass us in production of long-range
bombers. Senator Symington, and
others, were greatly worried. But no
one is worrying about this today. In
fact, most people concede that we are
much superior in long-range bomber
strength.
What happened to the prospective
bomber gap? Simply this. 1t failed
to materialize because the Russians. for
reasons of their own, did not produce
the bombers they were capable Of pro-
ducing. Our intelligence people dis
covered this, and the early estimates of
Soviet bomber capability were revised
downward to conform to Soviet intent
to what our information indicated they
actually were producing.
There is no assurance, of course,
that the same thing will hold true Of
Russian missile production. But If cur
rent intelligence indicates that the
Russians have not built missiles up to
the limit of the capability estimates of
a year ago, it seems to us that this is
legitimate factor to take into account.
It does not mean that the "adminiStra-
ton" is dealing from the bottom of the
deck, and it does not justify the accuSa-
ton that "the intelligence books have
been juggled so the budget books may
be balanced"