"The call by the Administration for a 12 per cent increase in Pentagon funds," Mr.

Buckley begins, "has met with a cold shoulder in Congress. And the reason for this, it is generally accepted, it that the public perception is that the Pentagon is already quite stuffed." Mr. Weinberger defends defense, cogently and engagingly, on many grounds: that a nuclear deterrent is much less expensive to maintain than a purely conventional one; that if defense expenditures were cut, that would have knock-on effects throughout the economy; but, bottom line, that "we preserve the peace now by being strong enough to persuade any possible enemy that an attack on us would be far too costly for them to make because of our retaliatory capability." Next step: replacing what Mr. Weinberger quotes President Reagan as calling the "mutual suicide pact" form of deterrence with a

real defense: the Strategic Defense Initiative.