ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that the hurdles or obstacles to citizen involvement in weapon decisions can be overcome. Antinuclear groups emerged with the deployment of the hydrogen bomb and have since monitored and fought the development of increasingly sophisticated and lethal weaponry. During 1979, with evidence that the Great Basin was now a serious contender for MX multiple protective shelters (MPS), Utah state representative Frances Farley began her campaign to mobilize people in Nevada and Utah against the MX MPS system. The concerns of the president, of members of the executive branch, and of Congress about significant delays in the deployment of MX were not just idle paranoia. To opponents of the system the public review process offered two lines of attack. The public debate over MPS basing that began as an isolated regional issue grew into a national controversy, and then expanded into an examination of the validity of the need for new weapons such as MX.
