01 May 2001

Senator Helms Backs Bush on Defense

Senator Jesse Helms (Republican-North Carolina) late May 1 came out in support of President Bush following the President's remarks at the National Defense University on Missile Defense.

"I greatly admire President Bush for his commitment to defend the American people against ballistic missile attack," said Helms in a written statement released by his office on Capitol Hill.

"The threat posed by rogue nations armed with nuclear or biologically-tipped ICBMs is real, and is growing rapidly -- largely because of the support that Russia and China are providing to hostile regimes. The President's decision to begin consultations immediately is wise and I expect that our allies will be strongly supportive," the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said.

"It is time that the United States and Russia dispense with the illogical and immoral concept of mutually-assured destruction (MAD), as enshrined in the U.S.-Soviet ABM Treaty," said Helms. "The idea of deliberate vulnerability to missile attack is a folly and Russia must come to grips with the fact that the Cold War is over. It is time to scrap the ABM Treaty.

"But the United States must update its thinking as well, which is why I believe it appropriate for the President to consider significant nuclear reductions," the SFRC chair said. "We can reduce the size of our deployed forces while maintaining a robust triad of survivable, readily available systems. But we must also modernize the deterrent that was built during the 20th century to meet the evolving threats and challenges of this one. In particular, we urgently need new weapons designs to address the problem of biological plagues, and deeply buried targets. Finally, we must realize that countries such as China are increasing their arsenals, and we must be exceedingly careful to preserve a significant reserve stockpile as a hedge against uncertainty. Within these parameters, the President's efforts to undertake a carefully-tailored, unilateral reduction in nuclear forces makes a great deal of sense.

"I salute our Commander in Chief, and I look forward to working with him on these exceedingly important matters," Helms said.