175 -treaties are ratified is $112 to $2 billion. The "worst case costs" if the treaties are not ratified -would be many times this -amount. In summary, Mr. President, I believe that rejection of the treaties by the Senate is likely to ca use serious consequences. These consequences include attempts to disrupt the canal. They include an expansion of U.S. Forces in the Canal Zone. They include a substantial increase in defense spending -with no increase in overall U.S. power measured against our principal adversary. They include the emergence of new opportunities for the Soviet Union and its Cuban hench-. men to fan the flames of anti-Americaism throughout Latin America and the Third World. Mr. President, in 1964, before our substantial involvement in Vietnamn the United States enjoyed a substantial advantage in almost eeycategory of military power in comparison with the Soviet Union. Today. 50,000 American dead, thousands wounded, and $150 billion later, we are struggling to maintain parity with the Soviet Union in military power; we are legitimately concerned that the Rus'sians may gain a decisive military superiority unless present trends are reversed. We live in an era of dramatically expanding Soviet military power And shrinking, American force levels; in an era of increased Soviet military and political pressure in Europe, northeast Asia, and Af rica; and in an era of growing U.S. dependence on foreign, seaborne raw :materials. One of the great pillars of America's strength during the past century has been the absence of hostile neighbors in our own hemisphere. This is a meaningful advantage we still possess, compared to the Soviet Union's border problems. We have rarely been compelled to orient a significant portion of our military forces toward the protection of our own territory from Canada or our good neighbors south of the Rio Grande. For our Nation to become bogged down in defending the canal .against a guerrilla-terrorist campaign would provide the Soviet Union a golden opportunity to achieve major military and propaganda gains in Central America, and to exploit these gains in many places throughout the world as they did during the Vietnam era. We must remember that the treaties now before this Chamber preserve for the next 22 years an American military presence in the anal Zone and that they preserve for the next 22 years American rights and capabilities to defend the canal with forces already in place. Moreover, the changes I have sponsored in the treaties will keep open the possibility of preserving an American military presence in Panama indefinitely. Mr. President, with these national security considerations paramount in my mind, I have decided to vote for ratification of the treaties as amended and changed. Finally, I feel the treaties should be placed in their proper perspective. In the final analysis, no treaty or legal document ever written ,can bar a nation from doing what it deems necessary to preserve its national security interests. As George Will pointed out in a recent 'Coumn before the amendments passed clarifying our defense rights: