Noam Chomksy - Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 281, s.v. “Documents 8A-D: DEFCON 3 during the October War.”

The CIA speculates Soviet fears of an imminent attack may have been a response to US actions launched a few months into Reagan’s first term: air and naval probes near Soviet borders that sought vulnerabilities in early warning systems; fleet exercises in proximity to sensitive Soviet military and industrial sites and operations that simulated surprise naval attacks; radar-jamming and transmission of false radar signals; submarine and antisubmarine aircraft conducting maneuvers in areas where the Soviet Navy stationed its nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines; and simulated bombing runs over a Soviet military installation in the Kuril Island chain. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA.gov), CSI Publications, s.v. “Books and Monographs,” s.v. “A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare,” March 19, 2007.

In November 2011 Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev issued a statement drawing a direct correlation between Pres. Obama’s 2009 revision of a missile system—a two-part installation in Poland and the Czech Republic planned by the previous administration—and the willingness of Russia to negotiate the New START treaty. He also stressed any plans for a European missile defense system that excluded Russia from “building a genuine strategic partnership” with NATO could result in withdrawal from START. Medvedev delineated additional measures, and by January 2012, it was reported Iskander missiles had been deployed to Kaliningrad, an exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. “Statement in Connection with the Situation concerning the NATO Countries’ Missile Defence System in Europe,” President of Russia (Kremlin.ru), November 23, 2011; “Russia Starts Deploying Iskander Missiles in Kaliningrad Region,” RT (Moscow), January 25, 2012.

“Operation Samson: Israel’s Deployment of Nuclear Missiles on Subs from Germany,” Der Spiegel , June 4, 2012.

Jerrold Meinwald, “Prelude,” Daedalus 141 (Summer 2012): 7.

Chapter 4, Article 8 of Bolivia’s Law No. 071 calls for the promotion of peace and the elimination of all nuclear, chemical, and biological arms and weapons of mass destruction (IV. 8. 6. “Promover la paz y la eliminación de todas las armas nucleares, químicas, biológicas y de destrucción masiva”). For comparison, the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bans all nuclear explosions, has been signed but will not enter into force until ten remaining states complete ratification; the US is among the holdouts. On Bolivia’s law, see note 1, chap. 1.