…advisor to president ford, chairman of president Reagan's Bipartisan commission on the mx missile. And former secretary of defense Robert McNamara who wrote in the current edition of foreign affairs that nuclear weapons are totally useless except only to deter…

…under those circumstances neither we nor they will use these weapons. In this sense I'm agreeing with the quotation that you gave from secretary McNamara, but I think we have to do a lot more and do do a lot more. We work to reduce the number of these…

…prescription for any solution to any problem. We are here to try to answer the question of what, if anything can be done. Mr McNamara you want to take a crack at that question. I think much can be done, Mr Koppel, much that we're not doing. And I…

…are weapons in search of a doctrine, so I do not want to defend any particular level of forces. The fact, however is, as bob McNamara pointed out we have 40 000 now. If we cut them in half in 10 years it would be a miraculous achievement and the…

…between extremes of intransigence and extremes of conciliation. And if we do not focus on some of the problems that bob McNamara mentioned how we design forces that make for stability, how we communicate over an extended period of time and what political…

…it will happen and you participate in bringing it about. This is why it's been so hard to get this sort of thing that bob McNamara is talking about. All right we're going to have to take a break in just a couple of minutes Mr Buckley, go ahead I may…

…in our deterrent forces in the last four years? The German Social democratic party has turned right around. I would ask Mr McNamara, is that a sign of stabilization or precisely the contrary? But it's by seeing this kind of thing which, by the way…

…as we are coming up on the hour that this is a special edition of ABC News viewpoint. I'm ted Compton. Now then Mr McNamara, pick it up please first. We have a stable deterrent today. We do a great disservice to our nation when we say otherwise, and…

…foreseeable future is not going to end now. Now the question is: what do we do about it and I agree with bob McNamara that we are not going to get rid of nuclear weapons. The important thing is, as the president's commission on strategic forces…

…the third row go ahead sir it's your question. Secretary Shultz has said tonight that there's a lot more to do. Mr McNamara said tonight that we have to increase stability while at the same time being much more imaginative. Mr Kissinger said that we…

…thinking that we can get away from this problem without the kinds of confidence building and stabilizations that Dr Kissinger and secretary McNamara have talked about. All right let's go to questions the lady in about the fifth row back. Yes MA am go…

…complete devastation everywhere. What about the point that Mr Wiesel raised earlier about a Khomeini or a qaddafi having that capability? Mr McNamara, do you want to pick up on that? Well I would say several things. First, we need to maintain and tighten…

…get out of their way and let them have it. Let's talk for a moment about nuclear freeze, just for a moment, Mr McNamara. The question I want to raise is: there is implied in every discussion of nuclear freeze the suggestion that it could happen, if…

…to persuade their leaders, with all the risks involved that it is impossible to think about a nuclear war. Well go ahead Mr McNamara. I want to come back just one second to the gentleman that asked about the youth. This is a very important question what…

…Many of the panelists have been emphasizing that what the real objective is is the pursuit of stability in the world. Secretary McNamara, Mr Kissinger both emphasized this. I have to ask, in light of that and if we want to reduce the probability of…

…venture in Grenada was definitely a venture towards stability and I wouldn't be surprised if when he was secretary of defense Mr McNamara had an invasion of Grenada as a contingency operation, did you no? All right let's go on to the next question. Yes…

…that a violation. All right we're down to our last couple of questions, the lady in the front row I'd like to ask secretary McNamara: you said that you had a list of about 18 things that the United States could do and you mentioned no launch on…

…reducing the numbers, this is perhaps the most important single thing we could do to avoid unintended use of these weapons. Mr McNamara, allow me to consider that your statement of summation, and I'm going to let the other five panelists give us their…

…Scowcroft, I think the key issues are how we sort our way through what is a very dangerous period. I do agree, as Mr McNamara said that in the long term we have every reason for hope. The resources available to the west are so out of proportion to…