Cold War Kids: The Truth About the New START Treaty

Ideological diverse yet respected foreign policy experts and high-ranking military officials—Henry Kissinger, George P. Schultz, Richard Burt, Robert Gates Hillary Clinton, and Adm. Mike Mullen—support the New START treaty. Ambassador Nancy Soderberg noted the reason for this phenomenon: “At its core, the debate is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who understand the world of nuclear weapons has changed dramatically and those who still view national security through a pre-9/11, Cold War lens.”

Treaty opponents embrace this Cold War hysteria, imagining a game of international chess that did not stop with the collapse of the Soviet Union. For them, first strike capability, acceptable losses, and thousands of nuclear weapons trained on major population centers have become a way of life. They demand to see negotiation records, hoping to uncover proof of Ivan’s cunning as he stealthily softens up lazy American capitalists for a surprise nuclear strike. Small wonder that those who entertain this skewed fantasy would sacrifice the proven benefits of a strategic arms treaty and bet the house on an unwanted, nonexistent panacea. These neo-Cold Warriors either are incapable of accepting the changes resulting from the end of the Cold War or they seek to return to the heady days of an unfettered nuclear arms race.

Take, for example, the repeated claim that the treaty will hobble the development of a missile shield. According to the far-right Heritage Foundation, it should “be the goal of the U.S. to have a missile defense system that renders nuclear threats by other nations useless.” They tacitly ignore the actual purpose of U.S. missile defense—preventing a nuclear strike from rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran—and demand a missile shield unlike anything ever imagined by the last Bush administration. The missile shield they dream of is a relic of the Cold War, a fantastical Star Wars system capable of enveloping the U.S. in an impenetrable cocoon of nuclear deterrence against Russia. If the U.S. were to follow the path laid out by these treaty opponents, a costly and destabilizing modern-day arms race will be unavoidable.

At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. DeMint inquired "Don't we want to expand our defenses so that we can obliterate Russia's offensive capability?” His simple question reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of the inherent relationship between offensive and defensive nuclear weapons. Beyond that, Sen. DeMint’s query woefully misinterprets the history of arms reduction treaties, and the necessity of non-proliferation in a post 9/11 world.

If the U.S. were to develop this mythical impenetrable missile shield, it would send shockwaves through the nuclear community. According to Sen. Kerry, it could “obliterate one party’s sense of deterrence,” and force nations like Russia and China to pour resources into developing an offensive nuclear arsenal large enough to eliminate this sudden gap.

Unchecked proliferation presents a more pressing concern, with unsecured nuclear weapons exponentially raising the likelihood of nuclear terrorism. A missile shield could not prevent a martyr from detonating a bomb in an American city, and nuclear deterrence holds no sway with non-state actors. Even if we spend untold billions arming ourselves to the teeth, safely ensconced in our mythical cocoon, we will not be invulnerable. Worse still, it will usher in a new age of nuclear paranoia not seen since the height of the Cold War.   

In a nuclear world America cannot go it alone.  Contrary to the baseless fear mongering of opponents like the Heritage Foundation, ratifying the New START treaty will not lead to a new arms race. It is not a drastically new agreement, but a reiteration of arms treaties supported by every administration since Reagan. If we ignore the treaty and pursue a path of nuclear hegemony, we will create a living, breathing monster that threatens the citizens of every nation.

The best and brightest cannot concoct a strategic plan or weapon system that will provide the safety and security that New START offers. There is no magic solution, no technological marvel to guarantee safety. Opponents of the treaty would do well to heed the words of “Nuclear Wizards” author Fred Kaplan: “The nuclear strategists had come to impose order -– but in the end, chaos still prevailed.”

The history of civilization shows no force more unstoppable than the madness of man. Mankind survived the Fall of Rome, the Grand Inquisition, and the Holocaust, but now we face a thousand-year night. That’s why we must remain vigilant. That’s why we must support New START. President John F. Kennedy recognized the catastrophic alternative: “Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”

Michael Crabtree is a Research Associate at Citizens for Global Solutions.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be voting on the New START treaty August 3rd. Join the New START facebook page for one final push. It's time to tell the Republican members of the SFRC to vote Yes on START.