Byron Dorgan: “This happens to be from a wing strut of a backfire bomber that the Soviets used to fly when we were in the Cold War. My…”

“This happens to be from a wing strut of a backfire bomber that the Soviets used to fly when we were in the Cold War. My assumption perhaps is that this bomber carried nuclear weapons. In the Cold War, the nuclear weapons on top of missiles were aimed at our country. The nuclear weapons carried in the bomb bay of a backfire bomber did not mean good things for our country. How did I acquire a piece of an airplane that was part of a Soviet bomber? This happens to be sawed off the wing of that airplane. It was sawed off the wing of an airplane at American taxpayer expense, one of the most successful things we have ever done. The reason I mention it now is the Presiding Officer's name is on that legislation, and through a program advanced by Senators Lugar and Nunn, we have had remarkable success in reducing the weapons delivery systems. This is from a bomber. This is the ground-up copper wire of a submarine that used to stealthily move under the waters of our oceans, again with nuclear weapons, with warheads prepared to aim at American cities. How did I acquire copper wire from a submarine that belonged to the Soviet Union? That submarine was taken apart, dismantled, as a result of arms control agreements that dismantled weapons delivery systems that at one point threatened America.…”