[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 85 (Thursday, June 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5301-H5302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE

  (Mr. GUTKNECHT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Madam Speaker, I remember the Cuban missile crisis. I 
remember fallout shelters. I remember the drills we had to do when I 
was a child to protect us from a nuclear attack.
  During the 1950s, America was practicing for what we thought was the 
inevitable. I do not want our Nation's children to ever experience 
that. It is time for us to build a national missile defense to protect 
our children.
  The good news is we have the technology to knock missiles right out 
of

[[Page H5302]]

the sky. The bad news is the administration does not think it is 
necessary. That is right. If an enemy missile was launched at the 
United States, our super-sophisticated computers would pick it up right 
away and calculate exactly where it was going to hit and when. And then 
nothing. All we could do is wait for it to hit its target and pray for 
all of the lives that would be lost.
  We have the capability to protect ourselves with a national missile 
defense. We just choose not to build it.
  Madam Speaker, I remember the 1950s. Let us use our technology to 
protect our kids. I want our kids to grow up happy and carefree, not 
practicing what to do when nuclear missiles are launched at us.
  Let us build a national missile defense. Let us do it for our kids.

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