[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 98 (Thursday, June 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and to include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, how ironic that one of the world's 
most celebrated marine scientist, who over the years came to the shores 
of many of the South Pacific islands and other countries and preached 
to us the gospel of conservation and to preserve all forms of marine 
life. He is none other than the Frenchman oceanographer Jacques-Yves 
Cousteau. Jacques Cousteau told millions of people throughout the world 
to save the whales; Jacques Cousteau told the world to preserve the 
precious reefs and corals that surround most of the Pacific islands; 
Jacques Cousteau told the world how important plankton is which is the 
life source of all marine life.
  But now, Mr. Speaker, we have another Frenchman named Jacques Chirac, 
who happens to be the President of France--and is now telling the 
world--the heck with you 27 million people and an additional 1.5 
million American citizens who live in the Pacific Ocean--we're going to 
explore eight nuclear bombs starting this September. Mr. Speaker, these 
are not devices, they are nuclear bombs.
  I ask the good people of France, have you no conscience toward the 
lives, the health, and safety of some 28 million men, women, and 
children who live in the Pacific region?
  Mr. Speaker, I say to the good people of France--you have already 
exploded almost 200 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific--now you want to 
explode 8 more nuclear bombs. Isn't it logical, Mr. Speaker, that the 
Chinese should now be given an open invitation to explode 174 nuclear 
bombs to catch up with France; and that countries like India, Pakistan, 
Iraq, North Korea, and Iran should now be justified for each of these 
countries to also explode 208 nuclear bombs to catch up with France. 
And yes, let's let France explode 900 more nuclear bombs in order to 
catch up with the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, what madness. Mother Earth is hurting and crying, and 
man is going to be held accountable for this madness.
  I submit for the Record the following:

           Cousteau Regrets Chirac Decision on Nuclear Tests

       Paris, June 14.--French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau 
     voiced regret on Wednesday over President Jacques Chirac's 
     decision to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean and 
     said atomic weapons should be outlawed.
       ``It is regrettable that France has given in to out-dated 
     arguments,'' Cousteau, 85, said in a statement.
       ``Great wars are of the past. The struggle for peace is 
     carried out first and foremost through education and the 
     restoration of morality,'' he said. ``Today's wisdom makes it 
     necessary to outlaw atomic arms.''
       Chirac announced in Paris on Tuesday that France would hold 
     eight tests at its South Pacific site, ending them next May 
     in time to sign a comprehensive test ban treaty.
       Cousteau, who regularly tops opinion polls as France's most 
     popular personality, has been a vigorous campaigner against 
     the French nuclear industry and marine pollution. He once 
     considered running for president on a radical ecology ticket.
                                                                    ____


               [From the Washington Times, June 15, 1995]

            Chirac's Nuclear Tests Send Message of Defiance

       Paris--By timing his decision to resume French nuclear 
     tests on the eve of his first presidential visit to 
     Washington and a Group of Seven summit, President Jacques 
     Chirac sent a clear message that France is a major power with 
     a world role.
       But his defiant decision to resume nuclear testing drew 
     outrage from every corner of the world yesterday as Mr. 
     Chirac's month-old government serenely insisted the nation's 
     ``vital interests'' override diplomatic niceties.
       South Pacific nations near the Polynesian atoll testing 
     site accused France of ``flagrant disregard.'' New Zealand 
     and Australia said they would freeze military relations. 
     Moscow and Washington were critical.
       In the grand tradition of Gen. Charles de Gaulle, the 
     leader of wartime Free France and father of the French atom 
     bomb, Mr. Chirac was asserting himself as the leader of a 
     pocket superpower with global interests and defying the 
     United States.
       Analysts said that Mr. Chirac had served notice that 
     President Clinton would be dealing with a French leader 
     determined to assert French and European interests in a 
     ``rebalanced'' Atlantic partnership.
       Le Monde diplomatic analyst Daniel Vernet called it ``the 
     desire to return to Gaullist gestures.''
       ``The message to the world and to the Nation is the same: 
     asserting his willpower, authority and ability to take 
     decisions that are, naturally, `irrevocable.' It is a way of 
     notifying Mr. Clinton before he arrives in Washington that 
     the president means to exercise his powers fully,'' political 
     commentator Philippe Alexandre said.
       The same determination was clear in Mr. Chirac's energetic 
     role in Bosnia, spearheading the creation of a rapid-reaction 
     force with Britain to protect U.N. peacekeepers and summoning 
     Defense Security William Perry to Paris to approve it, while 
     ignoring NATO.
       A remark during Mr. Chirac's first television news 
     conference Tuesday summed up his approach. ``I think the 
     Atlantic Alliance does not have a leader,'' he said.
       Mr. Chirac flew to Washington for his first summit with Mr. 
     Clinton, enjoying solid backing from his conservative 
     government. Politicians and commentators said there was no 
     doubt he deliberately timed the announcement as a show of 
     independence and fortitude on the eve of his meeting with Mr. 
     Clinton and the forthcoming G-7 summit in Halifax, Nova 
     Scotia.
       ``It's clear Chirac wanted to make a thunderous arrival on 
     the international stage,'' said Jean-Michel Boucheron, a 
     Socialist Party defense expert. ``I would have preferred his 
     first message to the world to be a message of peace, rather 
     than a slap in the face to 178 countries that signed the Non-
     Proliferation Treaty.''
       Mr. Chirac's premier, Alain Juppe, went before the National 
     Assembly to defend the test decision.
       ``France's vital interests prevail over all other 
     considerations, even of diplomatic nature,'' Mr. Juppe said, 
     ``France will maintain a credible and sufficient deterrent 
     force.''
       Mr. Chirac, at his first news conference since taking 
     office May 17, said Tuesday that France would abandon its 
     1992 moratorium on nuclear testing and conduct eight more 
     tests between September and May. He promised France would 
     halt all tests by May 1996 and sign a treaty banning such 
     testing.
       Mr. Chirac's predecessor; Socialist Francois Mitterrand, 
     suspended France's testing program in 1992, promoting Russia, 
     the United States and Britain to follow. China had been the 
     only nuclear power to continue experimental nuclear blasts.
       Russia said that the move could jeopardize international 
     disarmament agreements.
       But Mr. Juppe brushed aside the criticism, saying France 
     shouldn't heed complaints from powers that have conducted 
     ``10 times more tests'' over the years.
       Mr. Juppe said Mr. Mitterrand's suspension of testing three 
     years ago was ``premature,'' disrupting efforts to develop 
     computer simulation technology that would permanently end the 
     need for tests.
       France has no plans to develop new nuclear weapons or 
     change nuclear strategy and seeks only to verify the safety 
     of existing weapons while advancing toward simulation 
     technology, Mr. Juppe said.
       Domestically, ecologists and leftist political groups 
     assailed Mr. Chirac. ``You are the shame of France,'' said an 
     open letter to Mr. Chirac from Bernard Clael, a popular 
     novelist whose works stress environmental themes.
     

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