SENATOR LOTT’S REASONS FOR OPPOSING THE C.T.B.T.

(Excerpts from the Majority Leader’s Senate Floor Statement of October
8)

“The CTBT is itself seriously flawed in many ways, four of which I will discuss.”

• “Were the CTBT to receive consent to ratification by the Senate I am confident it
  would
  constrain the ability of the United States to modernize its nuclear
  arsenal.”

“The CTBT prevents the United States from making our weapons
safer and from
adapting our nuclear stockpile to new threats….The effect of the CTBT on the U.S.
nuclear stockpile is to make it less safe than it otherwise would be.”

“Because the CTBT does not allow testing for safety or for any other reason, the
United States will face the dilemma of fielding weapons that aren’t as safe as they
should be or doing without the weapons. For those whose ultimate objective is
the denuclearization of the United States, this is a good reason to support the
treaty. But it is not a good reason for those of us who understand the
continuing necessity of nuclear deterrence to the national security of the
United States.”

• “The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty could also have the perverse effect of
  engendering
  proliferation….The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty’s supposed non-proliferation
  benefits are
  based on hope, not fact.”

• “The CTBT verification scheme will have little effect.”

• “[The] so-called ‘safeguards’ are themselves deficient. The six conditions that President
  Clinton announced are not part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but entirely separate
  from the treaty. The safeguards were announced for the simple reason that the treaty is itself
  inadequate, or there would have been no need for the so-called safeguards.”

“The Joint Chiefs support the ratification of the treaty only with the safeguards
package…. The secret of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is that it does not stand
on its own merits, but is propped up by this `safeguards package’ which has been
accepted by no other nation that has signed or ratified the CTBT. So the Senate is
being asked, essentially, to provide advice and consent to ratification of this
treaty because of words that are not in the treaty.”

• “Arms control treaties must be judged by the straightforward standard of whether
  or
  not they enhance the national security of the United States. The Comprehensive Test
  Ban Treaty fails to attain this standard.”

“Given the limitations of current technology, it is simply not possible to be
simultaneously for nuclear deterrence and for this Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty. The two positions are mutually exclusive.”

In his book The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill observed, ‘Facts
are
better than dreams.’ Applying this observation to the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty leaves one no choice but to oppose this treaty.