NMD Decision Follows APS Action

On September 1, President Clinton announced that he was deferring a decision on deployment of a National Missile Defense until at least the next administration. This action was consistent with the recommendations made in an APS Council statement on April 29, and with the opinions expressed to the White House by many APS members in response to an e-mail alert that was sent out on July 31.

The APS statement said, in part: "The United States should not make a deployment decision relative to the planned National Missile Defense (NMD) system unless that system is shown - through analysis and through intercept tests - to be effective against the types of offensive countermeasures that an attacker could reasonably be expected to deploy with its long-range missiles."

In his September 1 announcement, President Clinton said, in part: "I simply cannot conclude with the information I have today that we have enough confidence in the technology, and the operational effectiveness of the entire NMD system, to move forward to deployment."