[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 364 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 364


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 22, 2004

       Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 To recognize more than 5 decades of strategic partnership between the 
United States and the people of the Marshall Islands in the pursuit of 
       international peace and security, and for other purposes.

Whereas on November 20, 2003, Congress, recognizing our Nation's historical 
        responsibilities over the Former Trust Territory of the Marshall Islands 
        and its successful transition from Trust Territory status to full 
        independence in free association with the United States beginning in 
        1986, approved the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act, which was 
        signed into law by President Bush on December 17, 2003, becoming Public 
        Law Number 108-188;
Whereas the Compact of Free Association, as amended by Public Law 108-188, 
        embodies and extends the close political, economic, and social 
        partnership, as well as the strategic mutual security alliance, between 
        the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the United States under the 
        terms of the bilateral association between our nations;
Whereas this partnership for peace and alliance for the security of our nations 
        and the world began in 1944, when the heroic armed forces of the United 
        States and its allies, with the courageous assistance of the people of 
        the Marshall Islands at the risk of their own safety, liberated the 
        Marshall Islands from Japanese military occupation;
Whereas the friendship and cooperation between the United States and the people 
        of the Marshall Islands that began during World War II continued during 
        the next 4 decades, during which the United States exercised powers of 
        government in the Marshall Islands under a Trusteeship Agreement with 
        the United Nations;
Whereas during the Marshall Islands trusteeship era the aim of the United States 
        was to promote international peace and security through its nuclear 
        weapons testing program which was viewed as a critical element to the 
        success of United States global leadership during the Cold War;
Whereas the United States testing program conducted in the Marshall Islands and 
        the strategy of nuclear deterrence sustained by the United States and 
        its allies, was carried out in the hope that understanding its 
        destructive power would be the strategy for which we could arm the world 
        with reasons for peace among nations;
Whereas from 1946 to 1958 the United States detonated 67 atmospheric nuclear 
        weapons in the Marshall Islands, representing nearly 80 percent of all 
        the atmospheric tests ever conducted by the United States, and enabling 
        atmospheric tests in the continental United States to be terminated and 
        relocated at the greatest possible distance from large cities and 
        densely populated areas;
Whereas on March 1, 1954, the hydrogen weapons test code-named Bravo yielded 
        explosive power approximately 1,000 times greater than the weapon used 
        in the 1945 wartime nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan;
Whereas the Bravo test created a mushroom cloud 25 miles in diameter, and 
        produced a crater 6,000 feet in diameter, vaporizing 6 islands at the 
        Bikini Atoll;
Whereas the Bravo test and the 12 year nuclear testing program has been the 
        defining experience of the modern era for the people of the Marshall 
        Islands, and these momentous events created a common bond between the 
        people of the Marshall Islands and the United States military and 
        civilian personnel who shared hardships and suffering with the people of 
        the Marshall Islands during the testing program, as well as the United 
        States citizens in areas affected by the mainland testing programs and 
        weapons production industry;
Whereas the people of the Marshall Islands, having learned first hand the 
        dangers of nuclear weapons, freely chose in United Nations observed acts 
        of self-determination in 1982 to enter into the Compact of Free 
        Association in order to become a sovereign nation allied more closely 
        with the United Sates than any other nation under any other alliance;
Whereas from the time of choosing self-determination, the Marshall Islands 
        worked closely with Congress and the executive branch to bring about a 
        strong understanding of the unique relationship between their islands 
        and the other United States insular areas;
Whereas the United States nuclear testing program put the people of these remote 
        islands on the front line in the Cold War struggle to preserve 
        international peace, promote nuclear disarmament, support nuclear 
        nonproliferation, and provide facilities critical to the development by 
        the United States of a deployable missile defense system to reduce the 
        risks of nuclear missile attacks; and
Whereas as a member state in the United Nations, the world body that once had 
        oversight of United States stewardship of the trusteeship for the people 
        of the Marshall Islands and their island homelands, the Republic of the 
        Marshall Islands has an unmatched record of working in conjunction with 
        the leadership of the United States in the pursuit of international 
        peace and security, the rights and well-being of the peoples of the 
        world, and in the War on Terrorism: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress recognizes as an historic achievement of friendship more 
than 5 decades of strategic partnership between the United States and 
the people of the Marshall Islands in pursuit of international peace 
and security, and recognizes with solemn regard for the cost of 
preserving peace, the importance of the nuclear weapon test code-named 
Bravo at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954.

            Passed the House of Representatives March 18, 2004.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.