Dec. 19, 1962 - President Kennedy and Prime Minister Macmillan neared an agreement today to terminate the controversial Skybolt missile program and seek other ways of assuring the British a nuclear striking force of their own. The price of continued American support for Britain’s nuclear ambitions was an understanding that the British would eventually integrate their nuclear power into a NATO nuclear force if such an international force can be brought into being. In place of the Skybolt, the British seemed likely to get the Polaris, a medium-range missile with which the U.S. has armed its nuclear submarines. The Skybolt is a ballistic missile designed to be carried under the wings of jet bombers and fired at distances of a thousand miles from the target.
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