nuclear-news

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) – a reminder of how close we came to WW3

40-year Cold War, during which each side produced enough nuclear weapons to end life, as we know it, on this planet. No other incident during that insane time provided such stark reality to this fact than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Close out the nuclear era Bennington Banner 11/11/2010 When the Senate returns in session following the November election break, it is expected to act on the ratification of a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START. The new treaty, signed by President Obama as an agreement subject to Senate ratification, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, on April 8, commits both the Russian Federation and the United States, to reduce their stockpiles of strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 and restrict delivery vehicles to 800 by the year 2020.

Although the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave its approval to the treaty by a vote of 14-4, a scheduled vote on the measure by the full Senate was withdrawn because of Republican opposition.

It has been over 65 years since American atomic bombs destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing an estimated 250,000 people. When the Soviet Union exploded its own atomic bomb in 1949, the event sparked a 40-year Cold War, during which each side produced enough nuclear weapons to end life, as we know it, on this planet. No other incident during that insane time provided such stark reality to this fact than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Robert McNamara, at the time, Secretary of Defense, wrote in his book, “In Retrospect,” that the Soviets had not only placed intermediate range nuclear missiles in Cuba but, unknown to us, had also positioned tactical nuclear weapons for use in the event that Cuba was attacked. President Kennedy, supported only by his brother Robert, and counter to all his political and military advisors, refused to give the order to attack thus avoiding a direct U.S.-Soviet military confrontation.

The situation from the Soviet side is revealed in the book “Rising Tide” by Gary E. Weir and Walter J. Boyne, which describes how Soviet submarines accompanied each of the merchant ships bringing the missiles to Cuba; each of the subs was armed with one nuclear torpedo.

The book, based on eyewitness accounts obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union, recounts how, Capt. Valentin Savitsky, commanding officer of submarine B-59, was pressed by the political officer and the executive officer to launch a nuclear torpedo at the aircraft carrier, USS Essex. Even while the U.S. Navy was dropping warning depth charges on his sub in an attempt to force it to surface, Savitsky refused and by doing so probably averted World War III…….

Close out the nuclear era – Bennington Banner

November 12, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | history, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, plutonium