U.S. Will Withdraw From 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
State Department Office of International Information Programs
December 13, 2001

Washington -- President Bush formally announced December 13 that the United States is withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"As provided in Article 15 of that Treaty, the effective date of withdrawal will be six months from today [December 13]," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a formal statement.

Official notification was given to the Russian government at 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT) by U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, and at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) similar notification was given to the governments of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, all former Soviet states that had signed memoranda of understanding in 1997, during the Clinton administration, tying them to the terms of the Treaty.

"I have concluded the ABM Treaty hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue-state missile attacks," Bush said in his announcement. "Defending the American people is my highest priority as commander-in-chief and I cannot and will not allow the United States to remain in a treaty that prevents us from developing effective defenses."

By leaving the 29-year-old treaty, Bush said the United States will be able to conduct the type of research, testing and development necessary to determine if a workable anti-ballistic missile defensive system can be fielded. The United States already has begun testing a ground-based system designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in mid-flight. The U.S. Navy has also been testing some components of a shipboard missile intercept system.

"The Cold War is long gone," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden after a meeting with the National Security Council. "Today we leave behind one of its last vestiges. But this is not a day for looking back. This is a day for looking forward with hope of greater prosperity and peace."

Then-President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, on May 26, 1972, signed the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Systems, which entered into force October 3, 1972. This treaty was one of two agreements reached during the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), which were intended to slow and eventually reverse the nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union.

The ABM Treaty prohibits the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems for the defense of either nation's entire territory, but did permit each side to deploy limited ABM systems at two locations, one centered on the nation's capital and one at a location containing ICBM silo launchers.

However, a 1974 protocol further limited each nation to only one ABM site, either at the nation's capital or around an ICBM deployment area. Russia has a limited ABM system located around Moscow.

The ABM Treaty also specifically bans the development, testing, and deployment of sea-based, air-based, space-based, or mobile land-based ABM systems and system components.

Bush said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin "have also agreed that my decision to withdraw from the treaty will not in any way undermine our new relationship or Russian security. Beginning in Ljubljana and continuing in meetings in Genoa, Shanghai, Washington and Crawford, President Putin and I developed common ground for a new strategic relationship."

Bush said the United States is committed to forging a strong economic relationship with Russia, and new bonds between Russia and the NATO alliance.

"I look forward to visiting Moscow to continue our discussions as we seek a formal way to express a new strategic relationship that will last beyond our individual administrations, providing a foundation for peace for the years to come," the president said.

Putin, in a television address December 13, called the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty a "mistake."

One major step in the relationship has been a pledge by the Bush administration to reduce the U.S. operationally deployed strategic nuclear arsenal from approximately 6,000 warheads to 1,700-to-2,200.

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