Last week, the United State retired its MX missiles at an Air Force base in Cheyenne, underscoring the end of the nerve-wracking nuclear standoff between the United States and the former Soviet Union. But decommissioning the weapons still finds the nation facing new threats.
The MX was conceived during President Carter’s term as a mobile weapon to be moved on underground rails. President Reagan spiked that unworkable idea but still won deployment of the weapon that would be the most powerful missile in America’s nuclear arsenal. Reagan renamed the MX “the Peacekeeper.”
“It is probably not an understatement to say that the Peacekeeper was the most politically charged program in the 1980s,” said former U.S. Air Force Undersecretary Peter Teets. Only 50 MX missiles were put in place, all entrusted to the 400th Missile Squadron at Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, with silos scattered throughout southeastern Wyoming. Supporters claim the MX helped end the Cold War, but critics say they made the world more dangerous.
Despite their enormous destructive power and unprecedented accuracy, the MX had a short life span. The first MX arrived at Warren in 1986 and deployment was finished by 1988. The next year, the Berlin Wall fell. By 2002, when President George W. Bush and Russian President Putin struck a deal to cut their arsenals, the MX had outlived its usefulness.
Ironically, today’s nuclear arsenal relies on smaller and older missiles, the Minuteman III – developed a decade or more before the MX. Warren still oversees 150 Minuteman III housed in silos across southeastern Wyoming, northern Colorado and western Nebraska. To comply with arms treaties, the IIIs were converted from carrying three warheads to only one. But their guidance and other technical systems also got major upgrades. Another 350 Minuteman III missiles are in North Dakota and Montana.
Today the world is much different than in MX’s heyday – but not necessarily safer. Nuclear weapons and the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction were Cold War deterrents because Soviet and American leaders both feared Armageddon. The same tactics may not work against today’s foes – suicide bombers make MAD meaningless. Today’s strategies must involve diplomatic finesse and keen intelligence.
The people at Warren did an excellent job safeguarding the most destructive weapons ever invented. Now the White House and Pentagon must find new ways to keep America safe.
