    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [January 26, 1996]
    [Pages 104-105]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on Senate Ratification of the START II Nuclear Arms Reduction
    Treaty With Russia
    January 26, 1996

        Today, Senate Democrats and Republicans, working together, have
    increased the security of the American people by ratifying the START II
    nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. I applaud this historic step.
    As I stated in my State of the Union Address this week, it will make
    every American, every Russian, and people all over the world more
    secure.
        START II requires dramatic cuts in the nuclear arsenals of our two
    countries. Together with the START I treaty, which we put into force in
    December 1994, it will eliminate submarine, bomber, and land-based
    missile launchers that carried more than 14,000 warheads--two-thirds of
    the nuclear arsenal the United States and the former Soviet Union
    maintained at the height of the cold war. START II will also eliminate
    the most destabilizing type of nuclear weapon--the multiple warhead
    ICBM. Starting with President Nixon, six American Presidents from both
    parties have worked to control and reduce the number of nuclear weapons.
    President Bush negotiated START II and submitted it to the Senate in
    January 1993. I am proud that we have seized the opportunity presented
    by the end of the cold war to take this big step back from the nuclear
    precipice.
        As President, my most basic duty is to protect the security of the
    American people. That's why I have made reducing the nuclear threat one
    of my highest priorities.
        As a result, for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age,
    there are no Russian missiles pointed at our people. We convinced
    Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakstan to give up the nuclear weapons left on
    their land when the Soviet Union broke up. We persuaded North Korea to
    freeze its dangerous nuclear weapons program under international
    monitoring. We're working with countries around the world to safeguard
    and destroy nuclear weapons and materials--so that they don't fall into
    the hands of terrorists or criminals. We led global efforts to win the
    indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which bans
    the spread of nuclear weapons to states that do not have them.
        Now, as I urged in the State of the Union, we must do even more to
    give the American people real, lasting security. We can end the race to
    create new nuclear weapons by signing a truly comprehensive nuclear test
    ban treaty this year. We can outlaw forever poison gas if the Senate
    ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention this year. We can take the
    fight to terrorists, who would acquire terrible weapons of mass
    destruction, if Congress finally passes legislation I proposed after
    Oklahoma City to give

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    American law enforcement an even stronger arsenal.
        Working together, I believe we can and we will take all these
    important steps to increase the security of the American people.