Remarks to Reporters on Departure From Salt Lake City, Utah

I wanted to make a brief statement because the question was raised--and you can all cover it--about one of these Halloween rumors.

I have found, in three States that I have visited, and this always happens in campaigns, the Halloween fear tactic being used by some of the opposition.

First, in California, they told 3,000 workers in Mountain View, California, that the Ames laboratory was going to close.

It was an absolutely false statement. There have never been any plans to close it. There has never been any discussion of it. It was made up out of the whole cloth.

Then when I got to Nevada, I found today from Mr. Raggio ¹ that his opponent had indicated that we intended to close down or sharply restrict the use of the Nevada test center.

Exactly the contrary is the case in Nevada. As everybody knows, I am for the antiballistic missile system and for a strong defense, and we are going to have more use for the Nevada test center rather than less. So I reassured the people there.

But I think perhaps the most shocking thing was when I learned here from one of the people over at the fence said that somebody came by door to door and was telling people that were at the Hill Air Force Base that that was going to be closed immediately after the election.

I checked into it. There is absolutely no truth whatever in that rumor. It is another one of the scare tactics of the opposition. The Hill Air Force Base is going to be maintained, and those who engage in this kind of tactic, I think, owe an apology to the families, to the workers that they have frightened, and, frankly, an apology to their opponents for making such charges.

I understand hard campaigning. We should campaign on the issues. But the idea of going around and trying to scare families and scare workers that bases are going to be closed when they are not going to be closed is, in my view, absolutely unconscionable. It is the worst kind of fear campaigning and it isn't even worthy of Halloween.