Cord Byrd: “I am pleased to endorse this treaty, which will substantially reduce the nuclear threat that has hovered for so many…”

“I am pleased to endorse this treaty, which will substantially reduce the nuclear threat that has hovered for so many years like a dark cloud over both the United States and Russia. The START II Treaty builds on twenty years of arms control efforts ranging from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty), through the SALT I, SALT II, and START I treaties. The START II Treaty, signed by Presidents Bush and Yeltsin on January 3, 1993, commits the United States and Russia to deeper reductions in strategic offensive nuclear weapons, and goes beyond the START I Treaty to include warheads on heavy bombers. The START II Treaty also establishes a limit of 3,500 deployed warheads, a ban on all land-based, multiple warhead ballistic missiles, and limitations on the number of warheads deployed on all submarine launched ballistic missiles. When taken together and fully implemented by January 1, 2003, START I and START II will have cut the deployed strategic weapons of the United States and Russia by approximately two-thirds.”