Support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

October 5, 1999

ISSUE:

After months of opposition and delay, Senators Lott and Helms agreed October 1 to put the CTBT treaty on the floor of the Senate October 12. Evidently, their hope is to get a quick vote before CTBT supporters can mobilize grassroots to gather the votes needed to pass the treaty. Polls show that 82% of the public supports the treaty, but if the Senate Republican leadership can portray this as a partisan issue and vote, the treaty may fail. Most Republican senators have not yet declared their position. The support of many will be required if the legislation is to obtain the two-thirds majority required for ratification of international treaties.

ACTION:

Phone your Senators before October 12, and urge their vote for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Call the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senator by name.

BACKGROUND:

A global halt to nuclear weapons test explosions has been a central objective of the United States since it was proposed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958. After forty years of bipartisan effort, President Bill Clinton became the first world leader to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on September 24, 1996, calling it "the longest-sought, hardest-fought prize in the history of arms control."

Why is the test ban so popular? The Test Ban Treaty will make America and the world safer for our children and grandchildren. The Treaty will strengthen our security by helping to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to other nations, now among the greatest threats to the United States. And it will help prevent the renewal of a superpower nuclear arms race.

How does the Test Ban Treaty make America safer? The Test Ban Treaty strengthens the United States' ability to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to other nations and helps prevent a new nuclear arms race from starting. It reduces the nuclear danger to the American people.

• The Test Ban Treaty makes it much harder for the countries with advanced nuclear weapons, including Russia and China, to produce new and more threatening types of nuclear warheads. And it helps prevent nations with smaller arsenals - like India and Pakistan - from making advanced nuclear warheads. This will reduce the likelihood that other countries seeking to purchase nuclear arms will be able to do so.
• U.S. ratification of the Test Ban Treaty will strengthen international support for the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the bedrock of all efforts to stop the spread of the atomic bomb. In 1995, the U.S. and the other nuclear powers promised to deliver the Test Ban in exchange for the permanent extension of the NPT - a good deal that must be honored.
• The U.S. has not conducted a nuclear weapon test explosion since 1992, when President Bush announced the U.S. would halt development of new types of nuclear warheads and Congress mandated a 9-month moratorium on nuclear tests. Each year since then, the U.S. has renewed the moratorium and the nuclear weapons laboratories have certified that the existing weapons will work as designed. With or without the Treaty, it is unlikely that the U.S. will ever conduct another nuclear explosive test. Thus, it is in America's interest to ensure that other nations are not conducting nuclear tests. U.S. ratification will encourage other nations to ratify the Treaty, and our nation's capability to detect cheating by others will be far better with theTreaty in force than without it.

What would happen if the U.S. Senate failed to approve the Test Ban? We would miss an historic opportunity to make the world safer for future generations.

• The U.S. would weaken the effectiveness of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, since some key member nationswould feel swindled if the Test Ban faltered due to U.S. inaction. This would undermine efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide.
• Military and political pressure would build to resume nuclear testing. It would be more difficult to verify compliance with the Test Ban Treaty, because the monitoring system would not be fully in place. Allegations of cheating might arise that could not be resolved in the absence of inspections provided for under the Treaty. Leaving the Treaty unratified would increase uncertainty and reduce U.S. security.

Who supports the Test Ban Treaty? Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Henry Shelton and former chairmen, Generals John Shalikashvili, Colin Powell, David Jones and Admiral William Crowe, all endorse the Treaty. These military leaders served under Presidents Clinton, Bush, Reagan and Carter.

Can the U.S. maintain its current nuclear arsenal without nuclear explosive tests? Yes. The United States does not need nuclear explosive tests to maintain its current arsenal. The arsenal will be sustained through non-nuclear tests and evaluations. Worn out parts will be replaced. A nationwide infrastructure of production sites and laboratories will be maintained and enhanced for this purpose. The directors of the three national nuclear weapons laboratories - Los Alamos, Livermore, and Sandia - as well as leading nuclear weapons scientists, have determined that America's nuclear arsenal can be maintained without nuclear testing through their nuclear weapons "stockpile stewardship" program.

"No major international treaty has been defeated in the U.S. Senate since the Treaty of Versailles (in 1920). That defeat caused immeasurable consequences over the next decade and helped eventually to lead to World War Two," said John Isaacs of the Council for a Liveable World. "The nuclear arms race is over," said John Holum, Under Secretary of State specializing in arms control. "Nuclear arsenals are shrinking.... We don't need tests. Proliferators do and the longer we go without the CTBT fully enforced, the greater the risk that proliferators will get what they want."

GENERAL ASSEMBLY GUIDANCE:

The 1997 Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly called for ratification and implementation of the CTBT , and urged "congregations and presbyteries to present the concerns of the church regarding ratification ... to their Senators ..." (Minutes, p. 585).

Adapted from materials provided by the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers and by Jay Lintner of the United Church of Christ Office of Church and Society.