President asks for Senate
to approve CTBT this year

Former Joint Chiefs Chairmen endorse
Test Ban Treaty

President Clinton, in his State of the Union address last night, urged the Senate to approve the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty this year.
The President called broadly for exercising responsibility “not just at home, but around the world.” He said the United States must help to “write the international rules of the road for the 21st century, protecting those who join the family of nations and isolating those who do not.”
One of those international rules is the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, about which President Clinton said:
“I ask Congress to join me in pursuing an ambitious agenda to reduce the serious threat of weapons of mass destruction. This year, four decades after it was first proposed by President Eisenhower, a Comprehensive Nuclear
Test Ban is within reach. By ending nuclear testing, we can help to prevent the development of new and more dangerous weapons, and make it more difficult for non-nuclear states to build them.
“I am pleased to announce that four former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- Generals John Shalikashvili, Colin Powell and David Jones, and Admiral William Crowe -- have endorsed this treaty, and I ask the Senate to approve it this year.”

The former Chairmen in a statement said:

“On September 22, 1997, President Clinton submitted the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to the United States Senate for its advice and consent, together with six Safeguards that define the conditions under which the United States will enter into this Treaty. These Safeguards will strengthen our commitments in the areas of intelligence, monitoring and verification, stockpile stewardship, maintenance of our nuclear laboratories, and test readiness.





2.

They also specify the circumstances under which the President would be prepared, in consultation with the Congress, to exercise our supreme national interest rights under the CTB to conduct necessary testing if the safety or reliability of our nuclear deterrent could no longer be certified. With these Safeguards, we support Senate approval of the CTB Treaty.”

John ShalikashviliColin Powell
William CroweDavid Jones



Produced by the White House Working Group on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
For more information on the CTBT: Phone: 202-647-8677 Fax: 202-647-6928