DATE=5/23/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SENATE / NUKES (L-O)
NUMBER=2-262714
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=

VOICED AT: 


INTRO:  Top U-S military officers say they favor 
further cuts in the U-S nuclear arsenal -- but warn 
the President and Congress not to go too far.   V-O-
A's Jim Randle reports, the comments from the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff come as the Presidents of Russia and 
the United States are preparing for summit talks 
expected to focus on nuclear disarmament. 

TEXT:  The top uniformed officers of all the U-S 
services say they support plans to cut the U-S and 
Russian nuclear arsenals until each side has about 
two-thousand or 25-hundred deployed strategic 
warheads.

Currently, Washington and Moscow have more than double 
that number, but they are nearing the final stages of 
a complex treaty process called START-TWO.  The treaty 
will cut the number warheads to about 35-hundred per 
side.

The next step in nuclear disarmament is a proposed 
START-Three treaty that would make even deeper cuts.  
The negotiating framework for that treaty was outlined 
in 1997 during talks in Helsinki between President 
Clinton and former President Boris Yeltsin.

The Navy's top officer, Chief of Naval Operations Jay 
Johnson, says he does not like a Russian suggestion 
for even deeper cuts, perhaps to 15-hundred strategic 
warheads.

            ///  Johnson act  ///

      I am quite comfortable with the Helsinki 
      framework, as described this morning.  I am 
      quite  uncomfortable going outside the Helsinki 
      framework without the requisite analysis on a 
      subject of such major strategic importance.
      
            /// end act ///

Other officers told a Senate Armed Services Committee 
hearing (Tuesday) that cuts deeper than the agreed 
framework could have an unpredictable impact on 
deterrence (the promise that a nuclear attack on the 
United States will bring a devastating and 
overwhelming response).

The Chiefs of the Armed Services say deeper cuts  
could force the scrapping of some U-S bombers or 
submarines that are also needed for conventional war.  
They worry that might leave fewer spares for weapons 
and delivery systems in a time of crisis. 

Under the U-S Constitution, the U-S Senate must 
consent to treaties signed by the President.  Richard 
Mies, head of the U-S Strategic Command told Senators 
not to be `hasty' in taking `taking irreversible 
steps,' because he said nuclear weapons helped `keep 
the Cold War cold.' (Signed)  







23-May-2000 16:23 PM EDT (23-May-2000 2023 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.