Cord Byrd: “But if the Senator will recall, let's go back to the time when we were considering the INF Treaty. Mr. Dole was the…”

“But if the Senator will recall, let's go back to the time when we were considering the INF Treaty. Mr. Dole was the leader on that side of the aisle. I was the leader on this side. And the Reagan administration sought to reinterpret the ABM Treaty to its own way of thinking at that time. There was a big dispute about this. There was a lot of pressure on me, as the majority leader at that time--the Senator probably didn't realize that, but I have not forgotten--to bring up the INF Treaty. I said: Well, let's see what Mr. Nunn, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has to say about that. And let's see what Mr. Boren, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has to say. And let's see what Mr. Pell has to say. Now, when they all come back to me and give a report to me that they are satisfied with this, then we will call it up. There was great pressure on me to bring up that treaty because President Reagan wanted to go to Moscow and sit down with Mr. Gorbachev and have an exchange of ratification papers on the INF.”