THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609280018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 44 lines
From the moment the unearthly light of the first atomic blast illuminated the Trinity test site in July 1945, the world has been seeking ways to control nuclear weapons.
A substantial step forward was taken last week when President Clinton signed a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, 33 years after a limited ban took effect in 1963.
It's true that India, claiming only a complete abolition of nuclear arms will do (but really fearing Chinese support for Pakistan), has refused to go along with the treaty. But even if it holds out, a moratorium on testing will continue until 44 countries ratify the treaty - and in practice until someone breaks the international agreement.
Michael Krepon of the Henry L. Stimson Center, an arms-control think tank, visited Hampton Roads shortly after Clinton signed the treaty at the United Nations. Krepon argues persuasively that the treaty represents a watershed.
Each such agreement makes the use, the testing, the manufacture and the proliferation of nuclear arms more difficult. Those who refuse to go along become branded as rogue states. He believes the tremendous outcry against French testing in the South Pacific makes a repetition by them highly unlikely and has set a new boundary. Testing outside a country's own territory will no longer be tolerated.
And a moratorium on testing matters. Without testing, those in the nuclear club can't develop more sophisticated arms. Countries with rudimentary fission weapons can't progress to the far more deadly thermonuclear level. And countries which have not yet joined the nuclear club may be deterred if the only reward is international outcast status.
Unfortunately, as Krepon points out, ``Republicans have flipped on arms control.'' Under Nixon, Reagan and Bush slow progress was made toward control of weapons of mass destruction. But a more conservative and isolationist GOP now runs Congress. It has rejected a Chemical Weapons Convention that was the handiwork of the party. And the Dole campaign is opposing the Comprehensive Test Ban and favors a resumption of atomic testing.
That's a position that promises a more dangerous world, not a safer one. President Clinton was right to sign a treaty that puts one more roadblock in the way of further proliferation, and it should be ratified. by CNB