To the Editor:
Re “Learning Not to Love the Bomb” (Op-Ed, Feb. 19):
Philip Taubman is right: the Obama administration must take bold steps toward nuclear disarmament. President Obama has said he supports the global abolition of nuclear weapons. Getting there will require not only sharp United States-Russian arms cuts but also canceling plans to deploy antiballistic missiles in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic.
Washington says they are intended only against Iran, but Moscow sees them as undermining deterrence and is likely to keep large arsenals as a hedge.
Mr. Obama should reaffirm the pledge made by Secretaries of State Cyrus R. Vance and Warren M. Christopher—reversed by President George W. Bush—that the United States will not use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear nations. He should promise that the United States will never use nuclear weapons first, even against nuclear powers. And he should renounce a new generation of “usable” nuclear weapons.
We have driven the arms race; we must end it.
David Keppel
Bloomington, Ind., Feb. 19, 2009
Note from KBJ: C. D. Broad comments on this letter.
