March 2019 - President Trump has given official notification that the US will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty of 1987, claiming that Russia has violated its terms. Unless things change, the exit from the treaty will take effect on August 4, 2019. The INF treaty has been credited with creating the conditions for ending the Cold War, since it removed intermediate-range ground-launched nuclear missiles from both NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, the likely ground zero for a potential proxy war between the US and the USSR. The short travel time of these missiles based in Russia (5-10 minutes to Berlin, 15 minutes to London) will leave only a short response time, producing twitchy trigger fingers, and a gravely threatening instability. Trump's announced intention to re-deploy such weapons, and Putin's threat to respond in kind, brings back the dangerous instability of nervous fingers on nuclear buttons, especially at a time when having several new nuclear nations increases the possibility of an accidental or mistaken nuclear launch.
It is widely accepted that the President has this unilateral authority. However, strong bipartisan Congressional Resolutions opposed to withdrawal, or calls for at most a temporary suspension, may cause the President to reconsider. The stakes are high. We must act.
ACTION: Urge your Senators and Representative to file Resolutions opposed to our withdrawal from the INF Treaty. We should instead negotiate clarifying amendments to the treaty, and include the other nuclear nations. A new arms race will be an enormous threat to our security.
CONTACT: Your Senators and Representative
- Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
- Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
- Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515
For more info visit: https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/INFtreaty
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