[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[October 13, 1999]
[Pages 1768-1769]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on Senate Action on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
and an Exchange With Reporters
October 13, 1999
The President. Good evening. I am very disappointed that the United
States Senate voted not to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty. This agreement is critical to protecting the American people
from the dangers of nuclear war. It is, therefore, well worth fighting
for. And I assure you, the fight is far from over.
I want to say to our citizens, and to people all around the world,
that the United States will stay true to our tradition of global
leadership against the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Senate
has taken us on a detour. But America eventually always returns to the
main road, and we will do so again. When all is said and done, the
United States will ratify the test ban treaty.
Opponents of the treaty have offered no alternative, no other means
of keeping countries around the world from developing nuclear arsenals
and threatening our security. So we have to press on and do the right
thing for our children's future.
We will press on to strengthen the worldwide consensus in favor of
the treaty. The United States will continue, under my Presidency, the
policy we have observed since 1992 of not conducting nuclear tests.
Russia, China, Britain, and France have joined us in this moratorium.
Britain and France have done the sensible thing and ratified this
treaty. I hope not only they, but also Russia, China, will all, along
with other countries, continue to refrain from nuclear testing.
I also encourage, strongly, countries that have not yet signed or
ratified this treaty to do so. And I will continue to press the case
that this treaty is in the interest of the American people.
The test ban treaty will restrict the development of nuclear weapons
worldwide at a time when America has an overwhelming military and
technological advantage. It will give us the tools to strengthen our
security, including the global network of sensors to detect nuclear
tests, the opportunity to demand onsite inspections, and the means to
mobilize the world against potential violators. All these things, the
Republican majority in the Senate would gladly give away.
The Senators who voted against the treaty did more than disregard
these benefits. They turned aside the best advice--let me say this
again--they turned aside the best advice of our top military leaders,
including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and four of his predecessors. They ignored the conclusion
of 32 Nobel Prize winners in physics, and many other leading scientists,
including the heads of our nuclear laboratories, that we can maintain a
strong nuclear force without testing.
They clearly disregarded the views of the American people who have
consistently and strongly supported this treaty ever since it was first
pursued by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. The American people do not
want to see unnecessary nuclear tests here or anywhere around the world.
I know that some Senate Republicans favored this treaty. I know
others had honest questions but simply didn't have enough time for
thorough answers. I know that many would have supported this treaty had
they been free to vote their conscience and if they had been able to do
what we always do with such treaties, which is to add certain
safeguards, certain understandings that protect America's interest and
make clear the meaning of the words.
[[Page 1769]]
Unfortunately, the Senate majority made sure that no such safeguards
could be appended. Many who had questions about the treaty worked hard
to postpone the vote because they knew a defeat would be damaging to
America's interest and to our role in leading the world away from
nonproliferation. But for others, we all know that foreign policy,
national security policy has become just like every domestic issue:
politics, pure and simple.
For 2 years, the opponents of this treaty in the Senate refused to
hold a single hearing. Then they offered a take-or-leave-it deal: to
decide this crucial security issue in a week, with just 3 days of
hearings and 24 hours of debate. They rejected my request to delay the
vote and permit a serious process so that all the questions could be
evaluated. Even worse, many Republican Senators apparently committed to
oppose this treaty before there was an agreement to bring it up, before
they ever heard a single witness or understood the issues. Never before
has a serious treaty involving nuclear weapons been handled in such a
reckless and ultimately partisan way.
The Senate has a solemn responsibility under our Constitution to
advise and consent in matters involving treaties. The Senate has simply
not fulfilled that responsibility here. This issue should be beyond
politics, because the stakes are so high. We have a fundamental
responsibility to do everything we can to limit the spread of nuclear
weapons and the chance of nuclear war. We must decide whether we're
going to meet it.
Will we ratify an agreement that can keep Russia and China from
testing and developing new, more sophisticated advanced weapons; an
agreement that could help constrain nuclear weapons programs in India,
Pakistan, and elsewhere, at a time of tremendous volatility, especially
on the Indian sub-continent? For now, the Senate has said, no.
But I am sending a different message. We want to limit the nuclear
threat. We want to bring the test ban treaty into force.
I am profoundly grateful to the Senate proponents of this treaty,
including the brave Republicans who stood with us, for their
determination and their leadership. I am grateful to all those advocates
for arms control and national security and all the religious leaders who
have joined us in this struggle.
The test ban treaty is strongly in America's interest. It is still
on the Senate calendar. It will not go away. It must not go away. I
believe that if we have a fair and thorough hearing process, the
overwhelming majority of the American people will still agree with us
that this treaty is in our interest. I believe in the wisdom of the
American people, and I am confident that in the end, it will prevail.
Q. Mr. President, when you say the fight is far from over, sir, do
you mean that you expect this treaty to be brought up again during your
term in office?
The President. I mean, I think that we could have had a regular
hearing process in which the serious issues that need to be discussed
would have been discussed, and in which, as the Senate leaders both
agreed yesterday when they thought there was an agreement and they shook
hands on an agreement, would have resulted in next year being devoted to
considering the treaty, dealing with its merits, and then, barring
extraordinary circumstances, would have put off a vote until the
following year.
By their actions today the Republican majority has said they want us
to continue to discuss and debate this. They weren't interested in the
safeguards; they weren't interested in a serious debate; they weren't
interested in a serious process. So they could have put this on a track
to be considered in an appropriate way, which I strongly supported. They
decided otherwise.
And we, therefore, have to make it clear, those of us who agree,
that it is crazy for America to walk away from Britain and France, 11 of
our NATO Allies, the heads of our nuclear labs, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, 32 Nobel laureates, and the whole world, having depended on us
for all these decades, to lead the fight for nonproliferation.
Therefore, we have to keep this issue alive and continue to argue it in
the strongest and most forceful terms.
I wish we could have had a responsible alternative. I worked until
the 11th hour to achieve it. This was a political deal. And I hope it
will get the treatment from the American people it richly deserves.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 8:37 p.m. on the South Grounds at the White
House.