Trump Withdraws U.S. From Reagan-Era Treaty That Eliminated An Entire Class Of Nuclear Missiles, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That The Weapons No Longer Existed To Be Built

The Filing

WASHINGTON. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that the United States would suspend its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and begin formally withdrawing from the 1987 agreement, resolving a long-standing concern that an entire category of nuclear-capable missiles had been removed from the planet and was no longer available to be manufactured, deployed, and aimed.

Signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the height of the Cold War, the INF Treaty had eliminated all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, retiring roughly 2,692 weapons and ending the standoff in which such missiles sat ready across Europe. Administration officials noted that the treaty had functioned for more than three decades, a problem the President indicated he was prepared to address.

The withdrawal returns the United States to the era that preceded the agreement, in which the relevant missiles existed in large numbers and could be developed without limitation. The President had previewed the move months earlier, telling reporters, "We'll have to develop those weapons," before adding that the country would build up its arsenal "until people come to their senses." Aides clarified that the senses in question had not yet been specified.

The administration attributed the decision to Russian violations of the treaty, a justification that officials acknowledged would also free Russia from the treaty entirely. A source within the administration described the outcome as ideal, explaining that both nations would now be permitted to build the weapons each had accused the other of building. Within weeks of the formal withdrawal, which took effect that August, the Pentagon test-launched a ground-based cruise missile that the treaty had prohibited for thirty-two years, calling the test a success.

Arms control analysts noted that the move ended the last major treaty restraining U.S. and Russian land-based intermediate-range missiles, leaving a single remaining nuclear arms agreement between the two powers. Officials confirmed they were reviewing that one as well.

At press time, the President expressed satisfaction that a problem solved by two world leaders in 1987 had finally been reopened for further study.

Who Benefits

§Donald J. Trump, who shed a constraint negotiated by a predecessor and presented the dismantling of a landmark arms-control treaty as a demonstration of strength.
§Vladimir Putin and the Russian military, who were released from the same treaty obligations the United States cited as the reason for leaving, and who could now deploy the disputed 9M729 missile without the pretense of denial.
§U.S. and Russian missile manufacturers, who gained a newly legal category of weapons to design, test, and sell, the development of which had been forbidden since 1987.
§Advocates of a renewed intermediate-range arms race, who saw the last guardrail on an entire class of nuclear-capable missiles removed in a single afternoon.
§Future arms-control opponents, who were left with one fewer treaty to negotiate around and a working precedent for exiting the next one.

Sourced to the public record · presented without editorial embellishment