[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 135 (Thursday, September 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE 35th ANNIVERSARY OF THE U.S. ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT AGENCY

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, today marks the 35th anniversary of the 
founding of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in the first 
year of John F. Kennedy's Presidency.
  The groundwork had been laid earlier in the Eisenhower 
administration, and the effort reached fruition in 1961. I was 
privileged to be part of that process as a new Senator in his first 
year of service.
  I had become quite interested in the new processes of arms control, 
and I went with my more veteran and most distinguished colleagues, 
Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator Joseph Clark of 
Pennsylvania, to argue the case that the new agency would have more 
weight and authority if it were established not by Executive order, but 
by the Congress as a statutory agency of the Federal Government. 
Fortunately, our friends in the White House agreed, and, over the next 
several months, the agency was created.
  The Agency was started with much hope and high expectations. Some 
even feared that the Director of the Agency would be too powerful and 
might take steps that endangered the national security by moving too 
precipitously to control arms. In the process of compromise, the 
statute was worked out so that the Agency could fulfill high 
expectations, but the nation would be protected from precipitous arms 
control.
  As matters have worked out, it is clear that those who feared that 
ACDA would go too far have had their fears unrealized. Those who hoped 
that the Agency would soar to new heights of arms control have had 
their dreams only partially realized. Nonetheless, the 35 years have 
been marked by many solid arms control achievements that have helped to 
ensure the protection of the national interests of the United States 
and that have served to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the 
United States is willing to continue on the course of arms control.

  The achievements during the period of ACDA's existence include: the 
Limited Test Ban Treaty, Outer Space Treaty, Protocols to the Latin 
American Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty, Non-Proliferation Treaty, Seabed 
Arms Control Treaty, Biological Weapons Convention, Incidents at Sea 
Agreement, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the SALT I Interim 
Agreement, the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, Peaceful Nuclear Explosions 
Treaty, Environmental Modification Convention, Intermediate-Range 
Nuclear Forces Treaty, START I Treaty, START II Treaty, the Chemical 
Weapons Convention to be considered a-new by the Senate next year, and 
the recently signed Comprehensive Test Ban.
  The ACDA involvement has varied among the treaties--some were 
achieved by Presidential envoys, and some by officials of the 
Department of State. In other cases, the Agency had the lead. But, in 
almost all cases of significant agreements, the Agency provided much of 
the necessary technical and legal expertise and provided the continuing 
backstopping that was necessary for success in negotiations year-in and 
year-out. The Arms Control Agency has provided an arms control 
perspective and expertise whenever needed by others in the executive 
branch. In the most successful times for the Agency as in this 
administration, the President and the Secretary of State have turned to 
the Director and to his staff as principal advisers on arms control 
and, often, nonproliferation. This experience has demonstrated the 
wisdom of President Kennedy and the Congress in their decision to give 
arms control a real boost by creating the only separate agency of its 
type in the world.
  Now that the cold war is over, some question the continued need for 
an arms control and disarmament agency. Some ask whether the essential 
tasks of arms control and disarmament are not done. In recent rounds of 
budget cutting, the Agency has indeed become beleaguered. It is 
fighting even now for a budgetary level at which it can successfully 
accomplish the tasks assigned to it. I hope very much that the effort 
to have ACDA adequately funded will be successful. Should we not 
adequately fund ACDA--with a budgetary level equivalent to the cost of 
a single fighter aircraft--I believe that we will rue that decision 
when we come to realize that the Agency made a great difference to our 
true national security interests.

  One can legitimately ask whether there are any truly significant 
challenges ahead. The able and dedicated current Director, John Holum, 
gave a chilling look at the challenges that truly face this country in 
the area of nonproliferation alone when he said in February at George 
Washington University:

       ``Meanwhile, the Soviet-American arms race has been 
     overshadowed by a danger perhaps even more ominous: 
     proliferation of weapons of mass destruction--whether 
     nuclear, chemical or biological, or the missiles to deliver 
     them--to rogue regimes and terrorists around the world.
       By reputable estimates, more than 40 countries now would 
     have the technical and material ability to develop nuclear 
     weapons, if they decided to do so.
       More than 15 nations have at least short range ballistic 
     missiles, and many of these are seeking to acquire, or 
     already have, weapons of mass destruction.
       We believe that more than two dozen countries--many hostile 
     to us--have chemical weapons programs.
       The deadly gas attack in Tokyo's subway last year crossed a 
     fateful threshold: the first use of weapons of mass 
     destruction not by governments but terrorists, against an 
     urban civilian population.
       Revelations about Iraq have provided a chilling reminder 
     that biological weapons are also attractive to outlaw 
     governments and groups.
       And recalling the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City 
     bombings, we must ponder how even more awful the suffering 
     would be if even primitive nuclear, chemical or biological 
     weapons ever fell into unrestrained and evil hands.''

  Mr. President, I commend the Arms Control Agency and its excellent 
staff. I hope very much that the Congress of the U.S. will have the 
wisdom to provide the necessary support and backing to the United 
States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency as it serves us and all 
Americans in the future in helping to find ways to deal with the 
threats to peace and security, the United States, its friends, and its 
allies will face in the period ahead.

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