CINCINNATI -- The Doomsday Clock is two minutes to midnight, a warning to take action to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons. President Donald Trump needs to realize this, and he could learn a lot from the late former President George H.W. Bush, who made disarmament a priority.

Last week, the annual announcement of the Doomsday Clock’s setting was made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It remains at two minutes to midnight, which is the closest it has ever been. The greater the danger of nukes, the closer the clock ticks to midnight. Last year and in 1953, during the Cold War, it was also two minutes to midnight.

The Bulletin warned that the “world’s nuclear nations proceeded with programs of ‘nuclear modernization’ that are all but indistinguishable from a worldwide arms race, and the military doctrines of Russia and the United States have increasingly eroded the long-held taboo against the use of nuclear weapons.”

William Lambers writes frequently from Cincinnati on nuclear disarmament.

The problem is that Trump has no vision for eliminating nukes. He is not willing to fight for this noble goal of a better world. The late President Bush did believe in disarmament and took action. Trump should learn from Bush and carry on his disarmament program until we can get to zero nukes.

The late President Bush was vice president as Ronald Reagan proposed the elimination of all nuclear weapons. This was during the Cold War years of the ’80s when the Soviet and U.S. nuclear arsenals were in the tens of thousands each. With weapons technology dangerously escalating, something had to be done to avoid a nuclear holocaust.

Reagan’s summit meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev started negotiations on reducing nuclear arms. When Bush succeeded Reagan in 1989, he took the baton and finished the largest of these potential agreements, the START I Treaty.

This landmark pact signed on July 31, 1991 reduced strategic long-range nuclear warheads of both the U.S.S.R. and the United States down to 6,000 each.

At the signing of the treaty in Moscow, President Bush exclaimed “In a historic first for arms control, we will actually reduce U.S. and Soviet strategic nuclear arsenals.”

Bush added to Gorbachev that, “by reducing arms, we reverse a half century of steadily growing strategic arsenals. But more than that, we take a significant step forward in dispelling a half century of mistrust. By building trust, we pave a path to peace.”

President Bush subsequently withdrew nuclear tactical (artillery-fired) weapons from foreign countries, hoping Gorbachev and the Soviet Union would follow.

In a televised Sept. 28, 1991 address to the nation, Bush said: “Recognizing further the major changes in the international military landscape, the United States will withdraw all tactical nuclear weapons … there is every reason for the Soviet Union to match our actions.”

They did. Diplomat James E. Goodby wrote, “these actions by Bush and Gorbachev prevented a disaster” as the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union presented the risk of loose nukes. Getting the tactical weapons out of action was critical nuclear security. Some of the withdrawn tactical weapons were destroyed, thus further reducing nuclear arsenals.

Bush was inviting Russia to “shed the heavy burden of a dangerous and costly nuclear arsenal which has threatened world peace for the past five decades."

President George H. W. Bush also achieved reductions with Russia on chemical weapons and limiting nuclear weapons testing.

And Bush revived Dwight Eisenhower’s idea of “open skies” aerial inspection over both Russian and U.S. soil. This led to the 1992 Open Skies Treaty involving the United States, Russia, Canada and European nations which helped to build cooperation in the post-Cold War era. American and Russian military officers would work together on these inspection flights.

The Korean Peninsula today could benefit from Open Skies flights as a confidence-building measure toward disarmament.

Many of Bush’s accomplishments in disarmament are not well-known. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, who took part in many of the negotiations, told Goodby: “We have negotiated the greatest disarmament program in history and it isn’t even on the radar screen of the American people.”

Despite the significant process achieved during the Bush years and efforts by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, there are still 15,000 nukes worldwide. The journey of nuclear disarmament has still miles to go.

But the momentum of nuclear disarmament that was present under Bush is nonexistent now. We need to get it back before it’s too late. The clock is ticking.

We must continue negotiations with Russia on reducing nuclear arms with more START treaties. We should save the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty that eliminates short- and medium-range missiles on both sides. We should preserve the nuclear deal with Iran to prevent an arms race in the Middle East. We need to finally ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and secure agreements with North Korea, China, India and Pakistan.

President George H. W. Bush gave future generations a solid disarmament platform to build from. Trump has to take the baton and build more treaties reducing the nuclear threat. The Doomsday Clock has given its warning. It’s time for action.

William Lambers of Cincinnati, who writes frequently on nuclear disarmament, is the author of “'Open Skies' for Peace.”

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