Columnist: US A-missile came close to launching

A US nuclear missile that may have been aimed at a target in the Soviet Union was nearly launched by accident in 1980, a columnist says. Jack Anderson, who wrote about the alleged incident in an article that will appear in Parade magazine, quoted two Air Force witnesses. But he says the Pentagon has denied the incident ever happened. Mr. Anderson also reported that during a false alarm of atomic attack in November 1979, some missile-launch officers disobeyed orders and delayed steps toward ''retaliation.''