(Nov. 15, 1981)

The long years of engineering grew out of a notion originated by Samuel T. Cohen, a Defense Department consultant, in the mid-1950‘s. Around 1957, at the instigation of Edward Teller at the Lawrence Livermore weapons laboratory, work began that led to the development of a device which, according to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, “enables infantry to fight closely behind it, as with conventional artillery.“

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Of all NATO governments, none was put in a more awkward position than Helmut Schmidt‘s. In 1978, the West German Chancellor, under heavy pressure from the Carter Administration, had sought his Cabinet‘s support to allow neutron deployment. The Chancellor privately won his Cabinet‘s approval but Mr. Carter, lacking any open backing from Bonn, deferred the matter, deeply embarrassing Chancellor Schmidt. Then, in December 1979, NATO agreed to accept 572 new Pershing-2 and cruise missiles to offset a new generation of Soviet SS-20 missiles. It was assumed that this action indefinitely postponed any revival of the neutron bomb.