Lincoln Chafee: “I am deeply concerned over this bill's provision affecting the ABM Treaty, and I would like to discuss my support for…”

“I am deeply concerned over this bill's provision affecting the ABM Treaty, and I would like to discuss my support for the Levin amendment. Let me give a little bit of history. The ABM Treaty was agreed to 20 years ago. What does it do? We hear a lot about the ABM Treaty, but what does it do? What is the key part of it? The thrust of it was to prevent the United States or the Soviet Union from gaining the ability to unilaterally --that is one side alone--to launch a ballistic missile attack against the other without the possibility of retribution. In other words, the whole purpose of the treaty was to prevent either side from employing a defensive system to shoot down incoming missiles, because that would, in effect, encourage one side to launch an attack knowing that they would be protected from any retaliation. Since that time, the geopolitical situation in the world has changed. The Soviet Union no longer exists and the Warsaw Pact has collapsed. There has also been rapid technological advances that could not have been predicted at the time that the ABM Treaty was signed. Given these dramatic changes, I certainly understand the interest to take a look at this ABM Treaty. It has been 20 years. It is appropriate to have modifications and to look at it again.”