THE WEEK

Jesse Jackson says he doesn’t go along with Louis Farrakhan’s offering to kill the reporter who spilled the Hymie story, but won’t repudiate Farrakhan. Walter Mondale and Gary Hart say they mumbled their disapproval of the Hymie remark six weeks ago in Pawtucket, now would the press please drop the subject. Each of the three Democratic candidates now agrees that the other two have added moral luster to the campaign. Now back to Ed Meese and the real moral problems.

Remember the “neutron bomb”? And the global campaign against it? The thing was designed as a knockout weapon against those forty thousand Warsaw Pact tanks, but a tremendous campaign was orchestrated to the effect that it killed people but saved property, an incredible formulation that was actually effective. In 1978, Jimmy Carter “deferred” production of the weapon—which is not a bomb, in fact, but an artillery shell. Without fanfare, the Reagan Administration has un-deferred production. The neutron shells are being stored in the United States, for rapid deployment if needed. As the Defense Department put it, “They contribute to deterrence because any potential aggressor has to consider this capability in his calculation of the risks and likely outcome of an attack”

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Presidential Election

William F. Buckley Jr.

National Review

Jesse Jackson says he doesn’t go along with Louis Farrakhan’s offering to kill the reporter who spilled the Hymie story, but won’t repudiate Farrakhan. Walter Mondale and Gary Hart say they mumbled their disapproval of the Hymie remark six weeks ago in Pawtucket, now would the press please drop the subject. Each of the three Democratic candidates now agrees that the other two have added moral luster to the campaign. Now back to Ed Meese and the real moral problems.

Remember the “neutron bomb”? And the global campaign against it? The thing was designed as a knockout weapon against those forty thousand Warsaw Pact tanks, but a tremendous campaign was orchestrated to the effect that it killed people but saved property, an incredible formulation that was actually effective. In 1978, Jimmy Carter “deferred” production of the weapon—which is not a bomb, in fact, but an artillery shell. Without fanfare, the Reagan Administration has un-deferred production. The neutron shells are being stored in the United States, for rapid deployment if needed. As the Defense Department put it, “They contribute to deterrence because any potential aggressor has to consider this capability in his calculation of the risks and likely outcome of an attack”